A Portable Ultra-low-cost Multi-Gas Sensing System-on-Module for Wireless Air Quality Monitoring Network

Air pollution is a major problem in cities around the world. It poses a serious threat to human health and the environment. A low-cost sensing infrastructure is essential for real-time monitoring of ambient air quality. We introduce an ultra-low-cost portable sensing device that can monitor multiple air pollutants like NO2, O-3 and Particulate Matter (PM). Chronic exposure to these gases causes serious health concerns. We propose to use an integrated microcontroller and a sub-1 GHz transceiver chip to significantly reduce the cost and power consumption of the sensing device. It is a portable device with a small form factor of 15 x 11 x 5 cm(3), costing less than US$ 250 and consuming approx 100 mW of power. The sensing devices equipped with wireless networking capabilities can form a dense network and assist in examining the toxicity of air.