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Spark-excited fluorescence sensor

  • US 5,333,487 A
  • Filed: 11/15/1991
  • Issued: 08/02/1994
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/15/1991
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A spark-excited flourescence sensor for detecting at least one gaseous species in vehicular exhaust gas flowing in an exhaust pipe of a vehicle, comprising:

  • (a) a spark plug to excite molecules in said vehicular exhaust gas from a ground state to excited states, whereby said molecules in said excited states emit fluorescence upon decay to said ground state, said spark plug installed in a portion of said exhaust pipe;

    (b) a guard housing provided with an optical fiber window to collect said fluorescence emitted, said guard housing installed in a portion of said exhaust pipe and positioned to receive said fluorescence generated by said spark plug through said optical fiber window;

    (c) an optical fiber bundle to transmit said collected fluorescence as an optical signal, a portion of said fiber optic bundle installed in said guard housing and positioned to receive said fluorescence transmitted through said optical fiber window;

    (d) a plurality of bandpass filters, each bandpass filter set to pass a unique band associated with a pre-determined gaseous species and adapted to receive said optical signal from said optical fiber bundle;

    (e) a plurality of detectors for converting said optical signals to corresponding electrical signals, each detector operatively associated with one of said bandpass filter; and

    (f) signal processing means to provide output signals corresponding to the concentration of each gaseous species detected.

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