Ionfinity Develops Detection and Analysis System for Identifying Hazardous Chemicals

Viaspace Inc., a clean energy company with subsidiary operations in security-related systems and technology, announced that its subsidiary Ionfinity completed a step in two phase II contracts awarded by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy to develop and demonstrate a detection and analysis system for identifying hazardous chemicals, explosives, industrial toxic gases, drugs and the chemical components of explosive devices (IEDs).

"Ionfinity teamed with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Imaginative Technologies and Sionex and demonstrated a Differential Mobility Spectrometer (DMS)- based technology designed to detect and analyze hazardous chemicals, explosives, toxic gases and illegal drugs for U.S. Army and Navy applications as part of two Phase II STTR Programs they are sponsoring," said Ionfinity Chairman, COO and Principal Investigator James Weiss, who presided over a demonstration that showed the initial capabilities of the system. "I am not at liberty to say any more about the tests except that they were successful."

In August 2008 Ionfinity was awarded a $750,000 two-year, Phase II contract with the U.S. Army under its STTR program entitled "Advanced Robotic Detection of Chemical Agents, Toxic Industrial Gases, and IEDs for Force Health Protection." In 2008 Ionfinity was also awarded a $786,000 two-year, Phase II contract with the U.S. Navy under its STTR program entitled "Miniature Electronic Sniffer for Navy Vertical Take off Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (VTUAVs)."

According to company information, the chemical-sensor system includes: 1) a new detector called a Differential Mobility Spectrometer; 2) a non-radioactive ionization method that does not fragment or multiply-ionize sampled specimens; and 3) a micro-gas chromatograph for confirmation and enhanced detection capability. The system will detect chemicals at anywhere from parts-per-trillion (ppt) to parts-per-billion (ppb) levels within 6 seconds

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