IN MORE THAN 112 COUNTRIES. THE ABILITY TO DETECT CHEMICALS USED IN EXPLOSIVES

CAN SAVE OUR SOLDIERS' AND CIVILIANS' LIVES. DR. CHRIS FIELD AND THE SCIENTISTS AT THE

NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY HAVE DEVELOPED A PATENT PENDING PROCESS, USING SILICON FOR

A SENSOR THAT MAY REVOLUTIONIZE THE WAY WE LOOK AT TRACE CHEMICAL DETECTION.

IT IS CALLED SiN-VAPOR. Detecting IED's in the battlefield or explosives

at airports is a complex problem because it is a trace chemical detection problem. And

what that really means is that IEDs and the compounds we are interested in don't really

want to be in the gas phase. And that's where we need them to be in order to do our

detection. So they need to be up in the air. But these are easily masked or overshadowed

by a more abundant compound such as perfume or diesel exhaust.

DOGS AND LABORATORY GRADE EQUIPMENT ARE THE CURRENT SATE OF THE ART FOR TRACE CHEMICAL

DETECTION, BUT BOTH ARE EXPENSIVE AND REQUIRE A TRAINED PROFFESIONAL

TO HANDLE THE SENSORS DR. FIELD HAS BEEN WORKING ON

ARE AN EXAMPLE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY. Nanoscale is 1x10 to the negative nine meters

which is the scientific definition. Another way of putting it is let us assume

that the diameter of a human hair is 100 microns. So if you can take the diameter of a human

hair, cut it down, and look at the cross sectional area. We can fit a million of our nanowires

in the cross sectional area of a single human hair.

So what is really needed for the soldier, and the warfighter, and at airports is small

portable, light weight, low power, low overhead sensors that you can give to everybody and

distribute them across the globe. THE SENSORS ARE IN THE EARLY STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

BUT THE TECHNOLOGY HAS DEMONSTRATED DETECTION CAPABILITY ON THE PARTS PER BILLION LEVEL

OF SENSITIVITY. SiN-VAPOR stands for Silicon Nonowire in a

Vertical array with a Porous Electrode. SiN-VAPOR is unique and different from other

technologies out there in that is a 3D architecture so we are maximizing the surface area so we

are maximizing our sensing capabilities within our architecture.

With our technology we have been able to demonstrate parts per billion and just recently we have

been able to demonstrate parts per trillion detection of chemical compounds. So the first

part in solving trace chemical detection as a problem for IED detection is getting that

sensitivity, being able to detect and operate in the parts per trillion to the parts per

billion range. This is why we are very excited about the SiN-VAPOR architecture because we

have been able to demonstrate that level of sensitivity.

The next big hurdle which is where we are at is selectivity.

Now, fortunately, because we are using silicon and we have that history of functionalizing

and changing silicon structure we can utilize that from the semiconductor industry to hopefully

advance that. Combine that with some of the NRL scientists

and the facilities that we have here at NRL, we are very excited about accomplishing and

very confident about getting over that last hurdle to transition this technology to the

warfighter and also to the consumer. WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE FOR THE SiN-VAPOR

SENSOR? The goal of this sort of project is to have

a small field-deployable distributed sensor on the same form factor as the cell phone.

"This would be akin to the Star Trek tricorder is what we are trying for.

So that everybody can be able to do chemical detection with their cell phones. And then

we could give that to every soldier out in the field so every soldier becomes a point

detector out in the field and can identify IEDs and do that without being close to them.

This could also be able to supplement dogs and also help in airport security. So one

way of doing Airport Security in the future if you had a sensor that demonstrated the

necessary sensitivity and selectivity like the SiN-VAPOR sensor is going towards, then

you could distribute that throughout the entire airport and have a checkpoint free airport

security system where you could map in real time the chemical plumes around every individual

in the airport. MAKING AIR TRAVEL A RELAXED, PLEASANT EXPERIENCE

WITH NO LINES AT THE AIRPORT, ONE COULD ONLY HOPE

THERE IS A LOT OF RESEARCH YET TO DO ON THE SiN-VAPOR BEFORE THESE SENSORS ARE USED IN

OUR CELL PHONES TO DETECT THE ENVIRONMENT AROUND US, BUT IT IS AN EXCITING IDEA.

NRL SCIENCE SOLVING THE CHALLENGES OF TOMORROW