IoT Miniaturization Spawns Thumbnail-Scale Combustible Gas Sensors

In a demonstration that IoT devices are getting ever smaller, a Nevada-based vendor has unveiled a combustible gas sensor with a surface area of just 0.9 square inches.

NevadaNano’s MPS Mini has purportedly drawn interest from gas monitoring sensor producers targeting domestic gas leaks and other combustible gas incidents, as well as poisonous forms like carbon monoxide and radon.

The sensor is designed to detect flammable gas, refrigerant leaks, methane leaks and indoor air quality in conjunction with an IoT-enabled distributed gas sensing system.

MPS Mini combines temperature, pressure and humidity sensors with software that’s programmed to ingest environmental data relating to 19 gas forms, including hydrogen, octane and propane.

The sensor handles gas concentration calculations locally, but would compile the results as a component in a commercial device, which could then be paired with various IoT endpoints, according to Bob Vigdor, director of sales at NevadaNano.

Vigdor told IoTWT that NevadaNano had endeavored to fulfill the qualitative feedback it had received from the first iteration of its technology.

He said: “[Clients] wanted a smaller footprint and needed a low-cost solution. They also asked for improved accuracy, very long life, no poisonings and no cross interferences unlike traditional/older technology such as NDIR or Pellistor sensors.”

NevadaNano promises the device will last for at least 10 years. It is yet to announce pricing for the new product, which will target industrial, commercial and government applications.

The core technology is a silicon architecture which combines multiple chemical sensors in tandem with NevadaNano’s database of electrostatic and thermodynamic molecules.

Part of an engineering field called microelectromechanical systems, MPS Mini can also make precise thermal measurements at 0.01 degree accuracy, by temporarily heating the sensor to extremely high temperatures.