Method for determining a potential poisoning of a sensor of an electronic nose by a volatile compound
AssigneeAryballe
InventorsThierry LIVACHE, Cyril HERRIER, Romain DUBREUIL
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Abstract
A method determines a potential poisoning of a sensor of an electronic nose by a volatile compound following an exposure of the sensor to a gaseous sample including at least this volatile compound. If there is poisoning, the method determines whether the sensor is still functional such that the sensor is still capable of carrying out one or a plurality of reliable measurements, or on the contrary, whether the sensor is saturated and must no longer be used. The method may be used with any type of electronic nose.
Claims16
1-10. (canceled)
A method for determining a potential poisoning of a sensor of an electronic nose by a volatile compound following a nth exposure of the sensor to a gaseous sample comprising at least the volatile compound, n being an integer greater than or equal to 1, which comprises at least the steps of:
- a) eliminating the gaseous sample from the sensor after the exposure of the sensor to the gaseous sample;
- b) measuring a baseline Bn of the sensor after eliminating the gaseous sample;
- c) calculating a poisoning indicator IE via formula:
- IE=(Bn−Bn-1)−(f×Un)
- wherein:
- Bn-1 is a baseline of the sensor before the exposure of the sensor to the gaseous sample;
- Un is an amplitude of a signal emitted by the sensor during its exposure to the gaseous sample;
- f is a weighting parameter;
- and
- d) comparing the poisoning indicator IE thus calculated with a threshold value S1;
- whereby:
- if IE is less than the threshold value S1, then the sensor is not poisoned;
- and
- if IE is greater than or equal to the threshold value S1, then the sensor is poisoned.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.