Environmental sensor and method therefor
AssigneeMotorola, Inc.
InventorsDonald E. Ackley, Michael Krihak, Chan-Long Shieh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sensor (10,30,40,50,70) for detecting chemicals and changes in the surrounding environment utilizes a sol-gel sensor element (14,16,17,54,56,57) containing a chemical indicator. Grooves (12,13,24,52,53) are formed in a substrate (11,51). The grooves are filled with a sol-gel material having a chemical indicator, and the sol-gel is cured to adhere to the substrate (11,51). The grooves (12,13,24,52,53) are formed to facilitate optically coupling a fiber optic cable (46) to the sol-gel sensor element. Light is coupled from the fiber optic cable (46) to the sol-gel sensor element (14,16,17,54,56,57).
Claims28
An environmental sensor comprising:
- a substrate having a surface;
- a plurality of parallel grooves on the surface;
- and
- a sol-gel sensor element in each groove of the plurality of parallel grooves.
An environmental sensor comprising:
- a silicon substrate having a surface;
- a plurality of parallel V-shaped grooves on the surface;
- and
- a sol-gel sensor element in each groove of the plurality of parallel V-shaped grooves, at least one sol-gel sensor element having a chemical indicator.
A method of forming a sensor comprising:
- forming a substrate having a plurality of grooves in a surface of the substrate;
- and
- forming a sol-gel sensor element within each groove of the plurality of grooves, at least one sol-gel sensor element having a chemical indicator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.