Engineering Manager - Gas Sensor Systems Interlink Electronics Newark, CA, United States
Interlink Electronics (formerly SPEC Sensors and KWJ Engineering) developed and commercialized the world’s first printed amperometric gas sensors. This breakthrough was a much-needed innovation in promoting the wide adoption of gas and environmental sensors in consumer, health, and industrial applications. Now, as the need for gas and environmental sensing continues to become mainstream, the ability to mass produce printed gas sensors at effective cost points has become an imperative for the industry. Our presentation addresses this challenge, along with practical insights into the kind of real-life application scenarios that are poised to benefit. Large increases in production volumes can only come from advanced printed electronics manufacturing techniques. Among the many challenges involved in reaching this goal, a significant one has to do with developing new composite materials that enable building order-of-magnitude thinner sensors, yet also are compatible with state-of-the-art printing and flexible electronic design processes, as well as deliver the appropriate sensor chemistry for optimal performance. This miniaturization and process compatibility, without loss in performance, will bridge the cost-performance gap to meet the large-scale demand of consumer applications. This presentation will provide an overview of Interlink’s successful development and productization work in this regard. Advanced volume manufacturing of digital gas sensing modules enables new markets and produces benefits for society in new innovative wearable and embedded-infrastructure products that increase human safety, health, and wellbeing. We will explain the many compelling uses of printed, low power, high-performance electrochemical gas sensors in a broad range of scenarios – from outdoor air quality monitoring, travel-friendly portable devices, automotive (EV) battery safety, to wearable attachments for at-risk persons – all of which are critical in the emerging connected world to promote health and wellbeing for all and enable smarter policy decisions. These applications require not just innovative sensors, but fully integrated intelligent and connected systems that are easy to use. With real-life examples, we will explain how systems based on flexible sensors enable valuable real time monitoring of the environment around us by incorporating AI-driven intelligent data analysis and aggregation. We explain how actionable feedback provided by small, low-power, cost-effective systems can improve overall quality of life in both indoor and outdoor settings.