Near real-time, hands-off detection of airborne particulate contaminants and bioburden

A system for the detection of airborne contaminants, the system comprising:

• a first assembly configured to sample a plurality of airborne particulate matter from an air flow to thereby obtain a specimen of coherent or condensed matter;
• a second assembly configured to detect at least one distinctive feature of at least one non-gaseous material comprised in the specimen;
• wherein the second assembly comprises a sensor system;
• an electronic converter configured to transform a first signal received from the sensor system into electronic data in a format for display or transmission by a communications interface;
• and
• a control unit configured to perform a plurality of process steps at least partially sequential, each process step is performed at least one time, in any order, and without an operator interaction to thereby define a hands-off, near real-time detection cycle;
• wherein the plurality of process steps comprising:
• (a) sampling the plurality of airborne particulate matter, (b) detecting the at least one distinctive feature, and (c) transforming the first signal received from the sensor system into the electronic data;
• the control unit is further configured to perform the process step (a) over a first period of time to thereby define a sampling time;
• the control unit is further configured to perform the detection cycle over a second period of time to thereby define a cycle time.