PARTICLE COUNTER WITH ADVANCED FEATURES

• US 20150316463A1
• Filed: 04/30/2015
• Published: 11/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Particles Plus, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Particles Plus, Inc.
• Inventors: PARISEAU, David, HODEL, Michael, GIANDOMENICO, Adam
• Granted Patent: US 9,677,990 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/1429 Signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/1459 the analysis being performed on a sample stream
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2015/1486 Counting the particles

Abstract

An airborne or liquid particle sensor with a number of advanced features is disclosed. The sensor includes an output channel generating an electrical signal for a particle passing through the sensor, where the electrical signal includes information related to the pulse. The information is processed by the sensor to determine a value that indicates a more accurate particle mass for a sample period than the average mass.

Claims

1. A particle counting system comprising:

at least one particle sensor including at least one output channel generating an electrical signal for a particle passing through the sensor,

where the electrical signal for the output channel includes at least peak pulse height,

where the peak pulse height of particle pulses processed by the sensor are summed in a value representing a total particle mass for the sensor, and

where the value is used to indicate a more accurate particle mass for a sample period than the average mass calculated by multiplying the particle count by an average size for the channel.

2. The system in claim 1, wherein the output channel generates an electrical signal representing a pulse width of the particle pulses, where both the peak pulse height and the pulse width are multiplied to provide an estimate of an area of scattered light, and where the area is used in the total particle mass sum.

3. The system in claim 2, where the area is calculated by fitting a characteristic curve for pulses from the peak pulse height and the pulse width to yield a more accurate area of scattered light.

4. A particle counting system comprising:

a controller;

at least one counter; and

at least one particle sensor including at least one output channel generating at least one electrical signal for a particle passing through the sensor,

where the electrical signal for the output channel is processed in order to increment the counter for each pulse that meets criteria for the signal,

where the output of the counter is connected to the controller,

where the controller periodically samples the counter to report, at least, particulate counts,

where the controller powers at least one instrument between sampling events.

5. The system in claim 4, where a second controller provides power management and enters low-power mode at the request of the controller and resumes operation after some specified delay.

6. A particle counting system comprising:

a controller;

at least one counter; and

at least one particle sensor, including at least one output channel generating at least one electrical signal for each particle passing through the sensor,

where the electrical signal for the output channel is processed in order to increment the counter for each pulse that meets criteria for that signal,

where the output of the counter is connected to the controller,

where the controller can be controlled remotely over a communication channel,

where the communication channel can be used to remotely, at least one of, configure and upgrade firmware.

7. The system in claim 6, where remote configuration is used to change installed options and functionality.

8. A particle counting system comprising:

a controller;

at least one counter; and

at least one particle sensor including at least one output channel generating at least one electrical signal for particles passing through the sensor,

where the electrical signal for the output channel is processed in order to increment the counter for each pulse that meets criteria for that signal,

where the output of the counter is implemented via programmable logic,

where the programmable logic of the counter is connected to the controller,

where the controller is connected to at least one other controller to distribute functionality.

9. The system in claim 8 further comprising a laser, where the other controller manages, at least, a laser to adjust the laser'"'"'s intensity.

10. The system in claim 8 further comprising a pump, where the other controller manages airflow by adjusting the pump'"'"'s speed in order to maintain a desired airflow rate.

11. The system in claim 8 further comprising a battery, where the other controller manages power by monitoring at least one of:

AC power, voltage levels, the battery'"'"'s charging and the battery'"'"'s discharging.

12. The system in claim 8, where the other controller manages an environmental sensor that detects at least one of:

temperature, relative humidity, differential pressure, air velocity, CO2, CO, and VOC.

13. The system in claim 8 further comprising a display in communication with the controller, where information from the controller can be displayed in any format, at least one of alternatively and simultaneously.

14. The system in claim 13, where the format selected form the group including:

a list of raw particle counts by channel size, a list of particle density measurements by channel size, a graphical representation of particle counts for one or more channel sizes over time, a real-time histogram of the particle counts by channel size.

15. The system in claim 14, where the histogram channel sizes can be individually enabled and disabled.

16. The system in claim 14, where the histogram has a log scale and relative sensitivity adjustment that allows adjusting the histogram scale to keep the histogram levels within a displayed scale.

17. The system in claim 16 further comprising an audio unit that generates an audio output, where the audio output is added to communicate information associated with height of the histogram either with increased volume.

18. The system in claim 16 further comprising an audio unit that generates an audio output, where the audio output is added to communicate information associated with height of the histogram either with increasing beep rate.