System and method for determining at least one constituent in an ambient gas using a microsystem gas sensor

A method for determining at least one constituent in an ambient gas, comprising:

• placing a chip containing an emission source and a detector in a natural flow of an ambient gas, the natural flow of the ambient as received without mechanical assistance;
• applying an electric field to at least a portion of a conduit gap within the emission source, the electric field creating a microplasma;
• detecting an emission from the microplasma;
• and
• processing data related to the detected emission to determine at least one constituent in the ambient gas.

A system for determining at least one constituent in an ambient gas, comprising:

• a controller;
• a plurality of micro-optical mechanical sensor in communication with the controller, each micro-optical mechanical sensor comprising:
• an emission source having a conduit gap for receiving a natural flow of an ambient gas without mechanical assistance, a plurality of electrodes for applying an electric field to at least a portion of the conduit gap, the application of the electric field creating a microplasma in the conduit gap;
• and
• a detector that detects an emission from the microplasma;
• wherein the controller receives a signal from each of the detector and processes the signals to determine at least one constituent in the ambient gas received at each detector.