Multi-Gas RF And RFID Sensors Research At GE: Microsystems Analytics (Sensors USA 2018)

Existing and emerging applications of unobtrusive and ubiquitous sensors - for industrial and environmental surveillance, medical diagnostics, food safety, personal health, and homeland security - demand reliable, high-performance, yet affordable sensors. For these and other applications, we are developing a new generation of such sensors that bridge the gap between existing and required capabilities. Our sensors utilize radio frequency (RF) and RF identification (RFID) formats and achieve required performance via their multivariable sensor design principles and microsystem analytics. Each multivariable sensor - with its several outputs to detect diverse properties of an ambient environment - is a part of a microsystem that includes sensor-excitation and signal-processing units. Our microsystem analytics includes data-processing algorithms with a feedback to sensor-excitation and signal-processing units.

In this lecture, we will provide details on our developed microsystem analytics methodology that allows quantitation of gas components in mixtures, rejection of interferences, and correction for environmental instabilities. Examples of scenarios where such developed sensors are important include wearable and remotely deployed sensors, autonomous robotics, home health, and many others when selectivity advantages of classic analytical instruments are cancelled by requirements for no consumables, low power, low cost, and unobtrusive form factors. We will conclude with a perspective for future needs in fundamental and applied aspects of gas sensing and with the 2028 roadmap for ubiquitous gas monitoring.

Radislav Potyrailo is a Principal Scientist at GE Research, leading the growth of wireless, wearable, and industrial/consumer chemical and biological sensors. Radislav has been Principal Investigator on programs funded by GE, AFRL, DARPA, DHS, NETL, NIH, NIOSH, and TSWG. He holds 125+ issued US Patents, many of which were implemented in commercialized systems. He has 150+ publications and delivered 80+ invited lectures and 10 keynote/plenary lectures. His recent recognitions include SPIE Fellow and Prism Award by Photonics Media/SPIE.

GE Global Research is GE's innovation powerhouse where research meets reality. We are a world-class team of 1,000+ scientific, engineering and marketing minds (600+ Ph. Ds), working at the intersection of physics and markets, physical and digital technologies, and across a broad set of industries to deliver world-changing innovations and capabilities for our customers.