Photoacoustic Gas Detector with Integrated Signal Processing
AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.
InventorWalter R. Thorson
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Abstract
A flexible gas sensor includes a housing with a predetermined form factor, a photoacoustic gas sensing chamber, and at least one of acoustic, temperature, relative humidity or pressure sensors in combination with processing circuitry which can emulate the characteristic gas response output of a catalytic bead pellistor-type gas sensor in response to a selected gas. The processing circuitry can include a programmable processor and a storage unit. The storage unit can be loaded with data and executable instructions to specify, at least in part, how the signals from the photoacoustic sensor are to be processed by the processing circuitry.
Claims15
A photoacoustic gas sensor comprising:
- a housing having a predetermined physical form factor;
- a photoacoustic gas sensing chamber carried in the housing;
- and
- processing circuitry carried in the housing and communicatively coupled to the sensing chamber, to process signals from the sensing chamber to produce an output signal responsive to at least one gas sensed by the photoacoustic gas sensor, said output signal emulating the characteristic gas response output signal of a catalytic bead pellistor gas sensor.
An integrated photoacoustic gas sensor comprising:
- a gas sensing chamber;
- a source of radiant energy which directs the energy into the sensing chamber;
- a plurality of sensors carried in the gas sensor body, including at least one acoustic signal sensor, a thermal sensor, a pressure sensor and a humidity sensor;
- control circuits coupled to the sensors to process photoacoustic or ambient environment-related signals from at least some of the sensors to produce at least one of a compensated, normalized or linearized gas concentration-indicating output signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.