Low-Power Miniaturized Helium Dielectric Barrier Discharge Photoionization Detectors for Highly Sensitive Vapor Detection.

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a microhelium dielectric barrier discharge photoionization detector (μHDBD-PID) on chip with dimensions of only ∼15 mm × ∼10 mm × ∼0.7 mm and weight of only ∼0.25 g. It offers low power consumption (<400 mW), low helium consumption (5.8 mL/min), rapid response (up to ∼60 ms at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min), quick warm-up time (∼5 min), an excellent detection limit (a few picograms), a large linear dynamic range (>4 orders of magnitude), and maintenance-free operation. Furthermore, the μHDBD-PID can be driven with a miniaturized (∼5 cm × ∼2.5 cm × ∼2.5 cm), light (22 g), and low cost (∼$2) power supply with only 1.5 VDC input. The dependence of the μHDBD-PID performance on bias voltage, auxiliary helium flow rate, carrier gas flow rate, and temperature was also systematically investigated. Finally, the μHDBD-PID was employed to detect permanent gases and a sublist of the EPA 8260 standard reagents that include 51 analytes. The μHDBD-PID developed here can have a broad range of applications in portable and microgas chromatography systems for in situ, real-time, and sensitive gas analysis.