Gas sensors based on Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) techniques have continuously gained in popularity over the past decades.
A number of clear trends in gas sensor design are visible today – gas sensors are getting smaller, consuming lesser power, and unit sensor cost is decreasing. NDIR gas sensing technology continues to build on the potential to complement and replace conventional gas measurement technologies, such as Electrochemical, PID, TCD, etc.
Axetris Infrared Sources based on thin film technology help gas sensor designers capitalize on these trends.
Smaller
The trend to miniaturize gas sensors is driven by increasing demand for portable implementation. Though NDIR gas sensors have continuously shrunk in size over the years, this trend is expected to further accelerate with increased adoption of gas sensors in mobile, wearable and IoT (internet of Things) applications.
Axetris offers the EMIRS50 product line of Infrared Sources, where the emitting area is a tiny 0.8x0.8 mm2. The EMIRS50 products have been designed especially for use in miniature gas sensors.
Leaner
Parallel to the trend towards miniaturization of gas sensors, the demand to decrease power consumption for battery-based use has intensified. Today, gas sensors are being developed which use a few milliwatts of power during normal operation.
Axetris Infrared Sources have a very short time constant which enables the possibility to use a very short duty cycle. This means, that a meaningful signal for gas concentration can be generated, even at very low nominal power. At the same time, the black platinum emissivity layer used in Axetris Infrared Sources delivers high electrical/optical efficiency.
Cost-Effective
For high-volume gas sensor applications in the automotive industry or for wearable devices, a very low unit sensor cost is a prerequisite.
Axetris Infrared Sources are manufactured using a wafer-based fabrication process. This allows for ease of production scalability, enabling very low unit costs at high volumes.