National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Sachiko Saitou

Tatsu Kobayakawa

Hideki Toda

A gas-concentration measuring apparatus for measuring the concentration variation of gas residing in a target region. The gas-concentration measuring apparatus comprises an ultrasound-transmitter adapted to transmit an ultrasound in response to an ultrasound-generating signal having a rate of voltage change equal to or greater than a slew rate of an operational amplifier, and further adapted to output the ultrasound-generating signal. An ultrasound-receiver adapted to receive the ultrasound wave passed through the gas residing in the target region, and further adapted to convert the received ultrasound into an electrical signal serving as a received ultrasound signal is provided. A gas-concentration determiner adapted to input the ultrasound-generating signal and the received ultrasound wave signal into the operational amplifier to generate an amplified transmitting-side chopping wave and an amplified receiving-side chopping wave is further provided. The gas-concentration determiner is further adapted to compare the transmitting-side and receiving-side chopping waves independently with corresponding given threshold voltages to detect a first pair of time points when the respective chopping waves become equal to or greater than the corresponding given threshold voltages or to detect a second pair of time points when the respective chopping waves become equal to or less than the corresponding given threshold voltages. The gas-concentration determiner is further adapted to determine the concentration variation in the gas based on the pair of time points.

Growing community of inventors

Ibaraki-ken, Japan

Sachiko Saitou