Product

GCAP-MIGAS is a comprehensive portable multi-gas testing system that can be used to complete real-time air-quality testing on site. The product's key technological innovation lies in the miniaturization of testing capabilities on silicon chips (using techniques from the microelectronics industry). For example, the detection module is based on NEMS nanoresonators. The product offers an alternative to current indoor air-quality testing systems, which generally either require taking air samples using absorbent cartridges, which must then be sent to a lab for testing, or using portable PID-type detectors that deliver immediate overall results, but that cannot provide a detailed analysis. GCAP-MIGAS offers the best of both worlds, providing a detailed analysis of indoor air quality in real time, without the need to send samples to a lab. The product will respond to France's upcoming indoor air-quality regulations (slated to go into effect in 2015), which will require public buildings like schools, daycare centers, and hospitals, to test the quality of their indoor air. GCAP-MIGAS will address this new market, offering public and commercial building owners and operators a fast, easy testing solution. The device can also be integrated into HVAC systems, where it can be used to trigger indoor air treatment if a certain contamination threshold is reached, for example.

L'histoire du produit

Apix was founded in December 2011 and so far has been working mainly on developing an initial prototype of its gas testing system. The prototyping phase encompasses all of the system basic building blocks (injection, separation, and detection modules and electronics). Initial tests on the system's analytical measurement chain, conducted in 2012, were successful. However, the performance specifications for the tests were relatively low. The following development phase (which took place under the Minalogic-certified MIGAS2 project) led to substantial improvements to the prototype. The demands of indoor air quality testing are high. The tester must, for example, be able to detect contaminants at concentrations of just tens of parts per billion. The ensuing R&D addressed these needs with enhancements like resizing the silicon-based components (the NEMS detectors and separation columns), developing MEMS-type injectors on silicon (crucial to measuring tiny concentrations), sourcing new components like preconcentrators to facilitate the measurement of low concentrations, and optimizing the system's architecture. Because it is portable, the product could be used for other on-site environmental testing applications such as pollution monitoring, one-off audits, and identifying the sources of pollutants. The technology developed by Apix will change how multi-gas testers are used, creating new applications for which conventional technologies are unsuitable.