US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Richard D Sickenberger

David W Sickenberger

Jerry B Cabalo

A method for detecting biological aerosols using a photon counting technique to determine the presence of particles is described. A Schmitt trigger is used to prevent over counting of particle events and for greater stability and noise immunity. An alarm determination is made using time-based statistical data derived from the observed fluorescent and scattered photon data.

Photon counting based particles detection method and apparatus

A biological aerosol detector is provided. The biological aerosol detector uses a semiconductor optical source with an ultraviolet emission band to excite biological molecules in an aerosol sample. Filtering optics are configured to attenuate radiation from a secondary emission band of the optical source to prevent false signals due to scattering of secondary emission band radiation from non-biological molecules. An intake/exhaust manifold that includes an intake pipe that fits within a concentric exhaust pipe is also provided. The intake/exhaust manifold planarizes the flow of the sampled aerosol to maximize the time of irradiation. An electrostatic sampling grid is also provided to selectively draw biological molecules having a net charge into the optical chamber.

Micro UV detector

A method for generating a synthetic data signal is described. A synthetic data signal having any desired duration is generated from a data signal and a background signal of shorter duration. The duration of the background signal is extended by sampling the background signal at random times and for random durations. The sampled background signal is used to extend the background signal. Event data is identified from the data signal. The extended background signal is randomly populated with event data randomly sampled from the data signal to generate the synthetic data signal.

Synthetic signal generator for testing biological aerosol detector peak detection algorithms

The invention provides particle detectors and detection methods. A particle detector includes a spherical/ellipsoid shell comprising spherical and ellipsoid mirrors that define a focal point within an interior of the shell, a pair of opposing tubes passing through the spherical/ellipsoid shell and directed at the focal point for directing particles to the focal point, and a light source directed at the focal point for directing light at the particles to generate fluorescence from the particles at or near the focal point.

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Silver Spring, MD, United States of America

Richard D Sickenberger