MEMS-based gas sensor arrays with linear temperature gradient for wine quality monitoring

The monitoring of the quality and safety control in the food industry is an up-to-date topic, because of the important issues of quality of life and health care as well as its possible industrial applications. The organoleptic analysis, based on both analytical methods and trained inspectors who use odour evaluation, is the wider used method to define quality and safety in foods. In many cases, monitoring and determining the constituents of a sample gas typically involves collecting samples and analyzing them in traditional analytical instruments such as gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) of significant size and cost. In addition, most analysis requires sample preparation, so that online, real-time analysis is difficult. Besides, many applications, such as the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or smells generated from food in agro-food industry, need smaller, more portable, cheaper, and even disposable sensor-based systems designed to analyse such complex mixtures. The most important analytical requirement is a high discrimination power capable of distinguishing between single gases or, more frequently, between gas ensembles. The aim of the work is the evaluation of innovative micromachined gas sensor array performance into field of wine quality monitoring, looking towards new applications into fast and cheap miniaturized multisensor systems in a more general food quality scenario.