by Keyword: Fresnel lens
Fonollosa, J., Halford, B., Fonseca, L., Santander, J., Udina, S., Moreno, M., Hildenbrand, J., Wöllenstein, J., Marco, S., (2009). Ethylene optical spectrometer for apple ripening monitoring in controlled atmosphere store-houses Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 136, (2), 546-554
In today's store-houses the ripening of fruit is controlled by managing the ethylene concentration in the ambient atmosphere. Precise and continuous ethylene monitoring is very advantageous since low ethylene concentrations are produced by the fruit itself and are indicative of its ripeness, and on other occasions, ethylene is externally added when ripeness or degreening of the product must be promoted. In this work, a multichannel mid-infrared spectrometer for ethylene measurement is built and characterized. The instrument contains additional channels to reject potential cross-interferences like ammonia and ethanol. Additionally, these channels are useful for monitoring a potential malfunction of the cooling system and possible fouling of the fruit, respectively. The complete spectrometer contains a silicon-based macroporous infrared (IR) emitter, a miniaturized long path cell (white cell), a four-channel detector module, low-noise analog amplification and filtering, and a microcontroller-based lock-in amplifier. The new inner architecture of the detector module features a fourfold thermopile array with narrow band optical filters attached by flip-chip technology, and a Fresnel lens array attached on the lid of the package. Laboratory tests show that the system is able to distinguish between ammonia and ethylene, featuring a detection limit of 30 ppm and 160 ppm (95% confidence) for ethylene and ammonia, respectively. Field tests show that the spectrometer is suitable as an ethylene alarm to detect fruit ripening and prevent fruit to decline into senescence. Simulation results show that system selectivity could be improved by setting ammonia channel to another absorption wavelength.
JTD Keywords: IR spectrometer, Ethylene, Fruit storage, Fresnel lens, White cell, Lock-in amplifier
Fonollosa, J., Carmona, M., Santander, J., Fonseca, L., Moreno, M., Marco, S., (2009). Limits to the integration of filters and lenses on thermoelectric IR detectors by flip-chip techniques 
Sensors and Actuators A: Physical , 149, (1), 65-73
In the trend towards miniaturization, a detector module containing multiple IR sensor channels is being built and characterized. In its final form it contains thermopiles, narrow band filters and Fresnel lenses. An important feature of such module is the assembly by flip-chip of the IR filters on top of the thermopiles. The performance of the filter-thermopile ensemble has been assessed by physical simulation and experiments and it has been optimized by the use of an empirically validated model. It has been found that integration of filters (or lenses) too close to the IR detector may lead to degraded performance due to thermal coupling. The impact and extent of this degradation has been thoroughly explored, being the main parameter the distance between the IR sensor and the filter. To avoid such detrimental effects a possibility is to set the device in vacuum conditions, obtaining an improved output response and avoiding the influence of the filters. Another way is to increase the solder joint height. Beyond a certain height, the filter is considered to be isolated from the thermopile.
JTD Keywords: Assembly, Infrared sensor, Infrared filter, Fresnel lenses, FEM simulation, Optimization
