Sensor measures gas components in people's breath

18th April 2016

Fujitsu

Enaie Azambuja

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Fujitsu Laboratories announced that it has developed a portable breath sensor that can extract and quickly measure the concentration of only specified gas components, such as ammonia, that are included at low concentrations in people's breath and are suggested to be correlated with lifestyle diseases. This sensor makes it easy to identify molecules that previously could only be identified using large analysis instruments.

Focusing on the correlation thought to exist between ammonia and liver metabolism as well as well as between ammonia and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, which is a risk factor for stomach cancer, Fujitsu Laboratories applied the ammonia-adsorbing characteristic of copper(I) bromide films to successfully develop a sensor device that measures tiny amounts of ammonia in a person's breath at a sensitivity differential that is roughly 2,500 times that for other gases.

In addition, by applying this technology, Fujitsu Laboratories became the first in the world to succeed in an experiment that selectively detected nonanal, which is a candidate biomarker for lung cancer.

Fujitsu Laboratories will seek to increase the types of gases it can measure in order to create a sensor device that is as easy to use as a thermometer in screening for people who should undergo more detailed examinations for the early detection of lifestyle diseases.

The details of this technology will be presented at the 11th Annual IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems (IEEE-NEMS 2016), which will be held in Matsushima Town in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture, on the 17th April.