Flexible Logic for Autonomous Gas sensing (FLAGS)

Tightening industrial safety standards across the globe combined with large scale economic and industrial growth in the developing world and increasing risks from air pollution in higher density cities has greatly increased the demand for low cost monitoring of the air we breathe for both safety and good health. Current gas detectors fulfill the legal requirements, but at a cost that limits widespread use, especially in the third world, there is therefore a significant gap in the market. The cost barrier cannot be broken with current PCB and silicon chip solutions, especially when combined with the multi-part and complex assembly of the sensors themselves. A radical rethink is therefore required. Hybrid plastic electronics and dedicated silicon chips along with integrated gas sensors represent a solution that is now possible and will be developed by combining the knowledge of a polymer electronics company, a gas detector company and dedicated silicon chip suppliers with the support of a leading academic group. This new system will offer a radical new change in design whose cost advantages will allow a wider acceptance of the product initially in the industrial/mining safety market. Further development building on the success of this low cost gas detector would then lead to a family of personal safety monitors, air quality cards and homeland security/ first responder protection alarms. The success of this product and adoption of the products produced will lead to a substantial improvement in the safety and work conditions of many industrial workers across the globe and in the long term could also have an impact on the general population through general environmental monitoring.