Modular Analytical Multicomponent Analysis in Gas Sensor Aarrays

Abstract: A multi-sensor system is a chemical sensor system which quantitatively andqualitatively records gases with a combination of cross-sensitive gas sensor arrays andpattern recognition software. This paper addresses the issue of data analysis foridentification of gases in a gas sensor array. We introduce a software tool for gas sensorarray configuration and simulation. It concerns thereby about a modular software packagefor the acquisition of data of different sensors. A signal evaluation algorithm referred to asmatrix method was used specifically for the software tool. This matrix method computes thegas concentrations from the signals of a sensor array. The software tool was used for thesimulation of an array of five sensors to determine gas concentration of CH4, NH3, H2, COand C2H5OH. The results of the present simulated sensor array indicate that the softwaretool is capable of the following: (a) identify a gas independently of its concentration; (b)estimate the concentration of the gas, even if the system was not previously exposed to thisconcentration; (c) tell when a gas concentration exceeds a certain value. A gas sensor database was build for the configuration of the software. With the data base one can create,generate and manage scenarios and source files for the simulation. With the gas sensor database and the simulation software an on-line Web-based version was developed, with whichthe user can configure and simulate sensor arrays on-line.