Paper Presentation on

E-nose Sensor
By
• Harshad K. Gosavi
• Ankit P. Bhagwat

• A. G. Aawate COEH
 ABSTRACT

An electronic nose is a device intended to detect odors or flavors.

Over the last decade, “electronic sensing” or “e-sensing” technologies have

undergone important developments from a technical and commercial point of view. The
expression “electronic sensing” refers to the capability of reproducing human senses using
sensor arrays and pattern recognition systems. Since 1982[1], research has been conducted to
develop technologies, commonly referred to as electronic noses, that could detect and
recognize odors and flavors. The stages of the recognition process are similar to human
olfaction and are performed for identification, comparison, quantification and other applications.
However, hedonic evaluation is a specificity of the human nose given that it is related to
subjective opinions. These devices have undergone much development are now used to fulfill
industrial needs.

E-nose means Electronic Nose an artificial Odour sensor. An electronic nose (e-
nose) is a device that identifies the specific components of an odor and analyzes its chemical
makeup to identify it. An electronic nose consists of a mechanism for chemical detection, such
as an array of electronic sensors, and a mechanism for pattern recognition, such as neutral
network. Electronic noses have been around for several years but have typically been large
and expensive. Current research is focused on making the devices smaller, less expensive, and
more sensitive. The smallest version, a nose-on-a-chip is a single computer chip containing
both the sensors and the processing components.

An odor is composed of molecules, each of which has a specific size and shape. Each of
these molecules has a correspondingly sized and shaped receptor in the human nose. When a
specific receptor receives a molecule, it sends a signal to the brain and the brain identifies the
smell associated with that particular molecule. Electronic noses based on the biological model
work in a similar manner, albeit substituting sensors for the receptors, and transmitting the
signal to a program for processing, rather than to the brain. Electronic noses are one example of
a growing research area called biomimetics, or biomimicry, which involves human-made
applications patterned on natural phenomena.
 Electronic noses were originally used for quality control applications in the food,
beverage and cosmetics industries. Current applications include detection of odors specific to
diseases for medical diagnosis, and detection of pollutants and gas leaks for environmental
protection.

It is now possible to add a new sense of smell to the Internet. This is done through the
virtual nose called the e-nose. An electronic nose is not a replacement for people, it is a
supplement. The "electronic nose" is a relatively new tool that may be used for safety, quality, or
process monitoring, accomplishing in a few minutes procedures that may presently require days
to complete

The electronic nose consists of two components,

(1) An array of chemical sensors (usually gas sensors) and
(2) A pattern-recognition algorithm.
The sensor array "sniffs" the vapors from a sample and provides a set of measurements;
the pattern-recognizer compares the pattern of the measurements to stored patterns for known
materials. Gas sensors tend to have very broad selectivity, responding to many different
substances. This is a disadvantage in most applications, but in the electronic nose, it is a
definite advantage. Although every sensor in an array may respond to a given chemical, these
responses will usually be different. In recent years, electronic noses have been sniffing out
landmines, detecting contraband drugs, sensing for chemical and biological weapons,
identifying batches of spoiled food, and even showing promise for aiding in the diagnosis of
diseases like lung cancer and pneumonia. These interesting devices are designed to mimic the
ability of the human nose to detect very small quantities of odorants. E-noses can also detect
chemicals that have no odor, such as toxic carbon monoxide. Compared to the senses of sight,
hearing, and touch, scientists know relatively little about how humans smell and taste.
Designers of electronic noses have tried to mimic human noses by linking together sensors that
detect a variety of volatile compounds.
The advantages of ANN-containing electronic noses over chemical sensors. The `nose' is
trained on examples rather than rules, negating the need for expert description of the domain.
The number of odours classified is greater than the number of sensors because the network can
discriminate between patterns of activation across all the sensors. Fewer sensors are needed.
Thus one can use less selective (and less expensive) sensors. Real-time odour identification.
The time consuming part of the process is training of the network. Once trained the system's
performance is governed by the speed of the chemical sensors. It processes new smells,
despite never having been trained on them.

Need of an electronic nose:

Human noses have always been the best odor receptors distinguishing between
very similar ones. Contrary to physical senses (dealing for instance with acoustic or optic
mechanisms), some aspects of the human taste and olfaction physiological working principle
are still unclear. Because of these intrinsic difficulties toward the understanding of the nature of
these senses, only sporadic research on the possibility of designing artificial olfactory systems
was performed until the end of the eighties. But as good as human noses are for chemical
detection, they have drawbacks. They "fatigue" if subjected to repeated smelling tasks or strong
scents, as anyone knows who has initially been shocked by an overpowering smell and then
has become acclimated to the odor. The exquisite sensitivity of the nose can be defeated by a
common cold, and for obvious reasons, human noses have limitations on sniffing out highly
toxic compounds.The electronic noses are unbiased. They are not subject to interference by
emotional states (e.g., tiredness, mood) or illness (e.g., allergies). They can be used in
dangerous situations (e.g., contamination testing). They are not subject to habituation.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SENSORS:

1. The sensors used in an electronic nose can be mass transducers (such as Quartz
microbalanz or QMB)

2. Chemo resistors (based on metal oxides)

3. Chemo resistors (based on conducting polymers)
4.Some arrays comprise both types of sensors.
5. Nanomechanical Cantilevers

The artificial nose demonstrator is based on micro fabricated nanomechanical cantilever

sensors - thin silicon beams - a few hundred micrometers long and one micrometer thick. Eight
cantilever sensors, each is coated with a different sensor layer, are integrated in an
exchangeable array. On exposure to an analyte, the analyte molecules adsorb on the
cantilever’s surface. This leads to formation of interfacial stress between sensor and adsorbing
layer. The bending pattern is characteristic for each analyte.
How smell sensors work :

A smell sensor can be made from a quartz crystal with electrical connections and a special
plastic coating. Quartz crystals are used in electronics because they can be made to vibrate at a
precise frequency. A quartz crystal is what is used to control the speed of a processor in a PC.
The frequency of vibration of the quartz crystal depends on its size, shape, stiffness and mass.
The plastic coating on the crystal absorbs some chemicals so increases the crystals mass. The
whole device is called a Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) A quartz crystal can be thought of
as mass on a spring. The frequency of oscillation of a mass on a spring is given by the formula:
f = ½*PI*((k/m)).Where k is the stiffness of the system in N/m, m is the mass of the system in
Kg, f is the frequency of the system in Hertz.

Data Processing Methods: The signals generated by an array of odour sensors need to be
processed in a sophisticated manner. The electronic nose research group has obtained
considerable experience in the use of various parametric and non-parametric pattern analysis
techniques. These include the use of linear and non-linear techniques, such as discriminant
function analysis, cluster analysis, multi-layer perceptions, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, and
adaptive models.

Pattern Recognition: A sensor comprises a material whose physical properties vary according
to the concentration of some chemical species. These changes are then translated into an
electrical or optical signal which is recorded by a device. The sensors are non selective A
chemical compound is identified by a pattern of the outputs given by the different sensors,
thanks to pattern recognition methods. There is an exhaustive database which contains the
information about patterns of different chemicals. The pattern now generated by the sensors
and the data processor is compared with every entity of the database. If a match occurs then
the chemical is recognized by the system.

Other techniques of operation: Electronic odour sensing devices have arrays of sensors that
detect the presence of vapors. In this way they act as volatile chemical detectors. The sensors
respond by producing electrical signals that are passed on to an artificial intelligence system
programmed to interpret them.
APPLICATIONS:
Environmental Monitoring:
· Monitoring of factory emissions, air quality and household odours.
· Detection of oil leaks.
· Analysis of toxic wastes and fuel mixtures.

Medicine:
Breath odours: The Highland Psychiatric Research Group is pioneering a breath odor
analyzer for the prediction of acute schizophrenic illness in vulnerable patients; normally an
extremely complicated procedure.

Body fluids. The smell of urine and blood can help in the diagnosis of liver and bladder
problems.
Wounds: Smell can be an important indicator that the operation is not going well and so a
remote electronic nose coupled with a local odour generator would help in the transmission of
olfactory information for medicine

Food industry applications.

- Inspection of food to test for ripening/rotting.
- Testing of packaging materials for odour containment.
- Microwave oven cooking control.
- Verifying if orange juice is natural.
- Grading whiskey and controlling fermentation.
E-nose could sniff out time of death. It could detect the time of death of a corpse by identifying
odors.
Army applications:

Inspecting the presence of landmines, detecting contraband drugs, sensing for chemical and
biological weapons.

Thus we see that no one expects e-noses to duplicate all the capabilities of the human
nose anytime soon. But they can deliver substantial benefits in situations where, given the
choice, we'd prefer not to use our own sniffers. No instrument is complete without its
shortcomings and an electronic nose is no exception.
E-nose Sensor
Conclusion:
Electronic noses were originally used for quality control applications in the food,
beverage and cosmetics industries and also used in army application.

REFRENCE:
1)B.G. Lliptek.(process control book)

2)DVS Murti (sensor and traduser book)

3)www.googel.com