Development of Technology for Low-Power Gas Sensing: IARPA’s MAEGLIN Program

摘要

Chemical detection is a priority for the Intelligence Community (IC) with applications such as forensic analysis,border/facility protection, and stockpile/production monitoring. In particular, the IC has an interest in long termmonitoring of a chemical environment without human oversight. The technology necessary for monitoring of this typemust provide high sensitivity and accuracy, be robust to false alarms in the presence of complex chemical mixtures, andbe contained in a small, ruggedized package with autonomous operation. The Intelligence Advanced Research ProjectActivity’s (IARPA’s) Molecular Analyzer for Efficient Gas-phase Low-power Interrogation (MAEGLIN) program isdeveloping an ultra-low-power chemical analysis capability for chemical detection and identification of explosives,chemical weapons, industrial toxins and pollutants, narcotics, and nuclear materials with a low false alarm rate in thepresence of complex interferents. In Phase 1 the MAEGLIN program separately developed component technology forchemical collection, separation, and identification tasks. This paper will describe the MAEGLIN program’s results fromthe nine separate Phase 1 performers. Highlights include development of an array of micro ion trap mass spectrometerswith dual photoelectric and electron impact ionization, a sector mass spectrometer with a charge coupled device (CCD)detector that uses permanent magnets for ion bending, a miniature tandem ion mobility spectrometer system with a wiregrid fragmenter, adaptive multi-channel three dimensional gas chromatography, various active and passivemicrofabricated preconcentrators, including one with a dedicated “hold and fire” stage for <0.25 second injection, andminiature electrostatic and Knudsen pumps.