Carbon Dioxide – Digital Sensor Module (CD-DSM) Innovation

Polestar Develops a Carbon Dioxide Digital Sensor Module for Rebreather Equipment for the US Navy

With funding from the US Navy, Polestar successfully developed a Carbon Dioxide – Digital Sensor Module (CD-DSM) for use in rebreather equipment. During this development effort, it became clear that similar compact, low-power modules could be developed to expand the list of measured parameters to include gas phase or dissolved levels of O2 as well as pH.

The development of these additional parameter types would build on Polestar’s extensive experience with our DSP4000 monitor for continuous O2 and pH measurement. To that end, luminescent sensing membranes and sensor electronics have been developed that enable accurate measurements of oxygen over three different ranges (ie, 0-5%, 0-100%, and 0-300% O2) and pH over two ranges (ie, 3.0-6.5 and 6.5-9.0).

These ranges of O2 cover a variety of applications including food processing and packaging, bioprocess and environmental monitoring, safety personnel protection, and mixed gas rebreathers to name a few. Similarly, the two ranges of pH offer solutions to measurement problems in single-use bioreactors as well as food processing where the use of glass electrodes can present serious problems.