Systems, devices, and methods for remotely interrogated chemosensor electronics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10198937-B2
Application number	US-201615006827-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 26, 2016
Priority date	Jul 21, 2009
Publication date	Feb 5, 2019
Grant date	Feb 5, 2019

Abstract

Systems, devices and methods for remotely interrogating sensor electronics are described. In one embodiment, a system for detecting and localizing chemical analytes is described. This system includes a plurality of chemosensor electronic devices for detecting the presence of chemical analytes. Each of these devices includes a chemosensor for sensing chemical analytes, a transponder, and an electronic circuit for activating the transponder based on an output of the chemosensor. These devices may have a cross-section area of less than 1 square micrometer. The system also includes an interrogation device for interrogating the plurality of devices and for receiving information on the detected chemical analytes from devices with activated transponders, and a processor for determining the locations of the devices with activated transponders. These locations may be forwarded to a third party.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for detection and localization of chemical analytes, comprising:
deploying a plurality of devices, each device comprising a chemosensor and a transponder, in an area to detect a chemical analyte;
simultaneously transmitting an interrogation signal to the plurality of devices;
activating the transponder of each of a subset of the plurality of devices to transmit a respective return signal responsive to detection of a presence of the chemical analyte and receipt of the interrogation signal by the respective device, the subset including at least two devices;
receiving the respective return signal from each of the subset of the plurality of devices, each respective return signal indicating the presence of the chemical analyte; and
determining a physical location of each of the subset of the plurality of devices based on the respective received return signal.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the physical location of each of the subset of the plurality of devices comprises processing the received return signals of the subset of the plurality of devices using a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image formation algorithm.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating for display a map of the physical location of each of the subset of the plurality of devices.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the map visually distinguishes between the physical locations of the subset of the plurality of devices and a remainder of the plurality of devices.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the respective return signal from each of the subset of the plurality of devices comprises simultaneously receiving the return signal from each of the subset of the plurality of devices.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forwarding the determined physical locations to a third party.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein simultaneously transmitting the interrogation signal to the plurality of devices comprises broadcasting the interrogation signal using radar.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of devices is configured to compare an output signal from the chemosensor to at least one of a threshold signal value and a plurality of prior output signal values stored in a memory to determine the presence of the chemical analyte.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the return signal includes information on a type of the chemical analyte detected by the respective device.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the return signal includes information on a concentration level of the chemical analyte detected by the respective device.

11. A system for detection and localization of chemical analytes, comprising:
a plurality of devices, each device comprising a chemosensor, a battery, and a transponder, deployed in an area to detect a chemical analyte; and
a remote interrogation device comprising processing circuitry, the remote interrogation device configured to:
simultaneously transmit an interrogation signal to the plurality of devices;
receive a return signal from each of a subset of the plurality of devices indicating a presence of the chemical analyte, the subset including at least two devices, wherein each respective return signal is transmitted using the transponder of a respective device that is activated to transmit the respective return signal in response to detection of the presence of the chemical analyte and receipt of the interrogation signal; and
determine a physical location of each of the subset of the plurality of devices based on the respective received return signal.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote interrogation device is further configured to determine the physical location of each of the subset of the plurality of devices by processing the received return signals of the subset of the plurality of devices using a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image formation algorithm.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote interrogation device is further configured to generate for display a map of the physical location of each of the subset of the plurality of devices.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the map visually distinguishes between the physical locations of the subset of the plurality of devices and a remainder of the plurality of devices.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote interrogation device is further configured to receive the respective return signal from each of the subset of the plurality of devices by simultaneously receiving the return signal from each of the subset of the plurality of devices.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote interrogation device is further configured to forward the determined physical locations to a third party.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote interrogation device is further configured to simultaneously transmit the interrogation signal to the plurality of devices by broadcasting the interrogation signal using radar.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein each of the plurality of devices is configured to compare an output signal from the chemosensor to at least one of a threshold signal value and a plurality of prior output signal values stored in a memory to determine the presence of the chemical analyte.

19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the return signal includes information on a concentration level of the chemical analyte detected by the respective device.

20. The system of claim 11 wherein the chemosensor includes a fluorescent polymer.

Assignees

• Raytheon Bbn Technologies Corp

Inventors

• Ho John
• Bidigare Thomas Patrick

Classifications

• G08B21/12

  responsive to undesired emission of substances, e.g. pollution alarms · CPC title

• G08B5/22

  using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission · CPC title

• G01N21/6428

  Measuring fluorescence of fluorescent products of reactions or of fluorochrome labelled reactive substances, e.g. measuring quenching effects, using measuring "optrodes" (in vivo A61B5/00; immunoassay G01N33/53) · CPC title

• G08C17/02 Primary

  using a radio link · CPC title

• G01N21/77

  by observing the effect on a chemical indicator · CPC title