The fabrication, assembly, and initial testing of a hybrid microfabricated gas chromatograph (µGC) is described. The µGC incorporates capabilities for on-board calibration, sample preconcentration and focused thermal desorption, temperature-programmed separations, and “spectral” detection with an integrated array of microsensors, and is designed for rapid determinations of complex mixtures of environmental contaminants at trace concentrations. Ambient air is used as the carrier gas to avoid the need for on-board gas supplies. The microsystem is plumbed through an etched-Si/glass microfluidic interconnection substrate with fused silica capillaries and employs a miniature commercial pump and valve subsystem for directing sample flow. The latest performance data on each system component are presented followed by first analytical results from the working microsystem. Tradeoffs in system performance as a function of volumetric flow rate are explored. The determination of an 11-vapor mixture of typical indoor air contaminants in less than 90 s is demonstrated with projected detection limits in the low part-per-billion concentration range for a preconcentrated air-sample volume of 0.25 L.

The design, fabrication, and characterization of a multiple-stage Si microfabricated preconcentrator-focuser (/spl mu/PCF) for a micro gas chromatography (/spl mu/GC) system that can provide real-time quantification and identification of complex organic vapor mixtures are presented. The /spl mu/PCF consists of a Si microheater loaded with Carbopack B, Carbopack X, and Carboxen 1000 carbon adsorbent granules, and a Si micromachined cover plate. Deep reactive ion etching is utilized to produce mechanically robust fluidic interconnection adapters hermetically sealed to fused silica capillary tubing for connection to the other components in the /spl mu/GC. This three-stage device is designed to capture compounds spanning up to 4 orders of magnitude in volatility. The dead volume, thermal mass, heating efficiency, and pressure drop of the three-stage /spl mu/PCF are improved significantly over its single-stage /spl mu/PCF predecessor. We demonstrate the successful capture, desorption, and high-resolution chromatographic separation of a mixture of 30 common organic vapors using our three-stage /spl mu/PCF in a conventional GC system. The peak width at half height is <2.05 s for all compounds after elution from the GC column.