This award supports the US-India cooperative research entitled Development of Metal Oxide Silicon/Porus Silicon MEMS Sensor and Signal Processing Unit for Atmospheric Monitoring in Underground Coalmines. This is an exploratory study to address the limitations of existing mine gas sensors that will be conducted through a series of exchange visits between Professors Prasanta Ghosh, Syracuse University and Hiranmay Saha, Japavpur University, Kolkata, India. The PIs will collaborate in developing devices with the deposition of Zinc Oxide for sensing the desired toxic gases in underground coalmines. Additionally, they will detect the level of the gas and process the signal suitabity for onward transmission to the control room located at the surface.
Scope: The collaborators will employ the complimentary strengths of Professor Ghosh in the area of thin film deposition and development of OTA based circuits with that of Professor Saha in the field of Porous Silicon and Silicon/Porous Silicon based MEMS Sensors. They expect their research to have broad impact in that it will lead to the development of relatively cheap and reliable atmospheric monitoring systems suitable for underground coalmines. It will also enrich fundamental knowledge in the field of MEMS and will lead to the development of Integrated Silicon Microsensors for gas and pressure sensing. Graduate and undergraduate students at both institutions will profit from presentations given by the researchers during exchange visits. The results will be disseminated broadly in journals and at conferences where they will present the research findings.
