Issued patent
Polymer Electrolyte-Based Ambient Temperature Oxygen Microsensor
An issued NASA patent from the Technology Transfer catalog.
About this technology
Overview
Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center have developed an ambient temperature oxygen microsensor that can be used in fuel-leak and fire-detection applications. Because the technology detects oxygen levels from 7-21% in nitrogen, it also enables environmental and personal health monitoring. Many existing ambient temperature oxygen sensors are optically based, hard to miniaturize, and involve large, complicated, and costly instrumentation. By contrast, the Glenn microsensor is small, simple to batch-fabricate, consumes little power, and operates in a wide humidity range. Originally developed for extravehicular activity for monitoring oxygen in spacesuits, Glenn's novel design is based on a Nafion tm polymer electrolyte and manufactured using state-of-the-art thin-film technologies. It combines an innovative use of metal oxide as a reference electrode with a unique sensor design that enables miniaturization and flexibility, for a multitude of personal health monitoring and environmental applications.