Apparatus and methods for detecting explosives and other substances

Abstract

An explosive detector that utilizes an array of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) coated, bifurcated fiber optic cables to form an image of a target molecule source. Individual sensor fiber assemblies, each with a calibrated airflow, are used to expose the fibers to the target molecule. The detector energizes a dedicated excitation light source for each fiber, while simultaneously reading and processing the intensity of the resulting fluorescence that is indicative of the concentration of the target molecule. Processing electronics precisely controls the excitation current, and measures the detected signal from each narrow band pass filter and photodiode. A computer with display processes the data to form an image of the target molecule source that can be used to identify the source even when low level contamination of the same molecule is present. The detector can be used to detect multiple and/or non-explosive targets by varying the MIP coating.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.