Introducing Periodicity for Discrete Determination of Concentrations of Gases in a Gaseous Mixture

A device for detecting a concentration of a component of a gaseous sample, the device comprising:

• a trapping chamber for temporarily containing a volume of the sample;
• a sensing chamber proximate to and in fluid communication with the trapping chamber;
• a pump in fluid communication with the trapping chamber and sensing chamber, and wherein the pump is configured to pressurize the gaseous sample in the trapping chamber;
• a control unit in communication with the pump so as to control a pressure of the gaseous sample;
• a sensor unit, the sensor unit including a sensor, and wherein the sensor includes a sensing surface, and wherein the sensor surface is exposed to the inside of the sensing chamber;
• a power supply in electronic communication with the control unit and the sensor unit;
• and
• a memory configured with instructions that cause the device to:
• provide a periodic change to a condition of the sensor;
• make a computation related to Mathieu's Equation to determine when a value associated with an electrical change in the sensor is in a stable domain, wherein a stable domain is a numeric domain where values can be predicted in accordance with the said Mathieu's Equation, and wherein an unstable domain is a numeric domain where a resulting value is unreliable;
• and
• when the value associated with the electrical change is in a stable domain, determine a numerical value associated with the concentration of the component in the sample based on the said periodically changed condition of the sensor.

A method for determining a concentration of a component of a gaseous sample, the method comprising:

• [1] trapping a volume of the gaseous sample in a chamber;
• [2] exposing the gaseous sample in the chamber to a sensor when the sensor is powered by a power supply;
• [3] providing a periodic variation to a physical characteristic of the sensor or the system;
• [4] detecting a change in electric current associated with the sensor as a result of interaction of the sample with the sensor;
• [5] capturing a copy of the value associated with the change in current;
• [6] performing computer instructions related to Mathieu's Equation with a value for each initial condition of Mathieu's Equation by determining when a value associated with the detected current is in a stable domain, wherein the values associated with the initial conditions are related to conditions of the sample in the chamber;
• [7] when the value associated with the detected current is in a stable domain, determining the concentration of the component of the sample using the captured copy of the value associated with the change in current.