A SoC and LED based reconfigurable subminiature spectrometer for hand-held measurement applications

This paper discusses a novel reconfigurable subminiature spectrometer named RSS, which is based on LED as the light source and integrated photodiode IC as the sensor. This device uniquely uses System-on-a-Chip (SoC) as the core unit of the intelligent spectrometer. The main functions of the intelligent spectrometer, such as multi-channel A/D conversion, data storage, real-time clock, firmware updating, etc., are implemented only on one SoC chip. This one-chip-design reduces the price and complexity of the system, increases the stability of spectrometer, and subminiaturizes the device dimensions. It is quite fit for hand-held measurement applications. Furthermore, the replaceable measurement module design and firmware updating function boost up the expandability of RSS. As the applications of RSS, the absorbance measurement of NH3-N and kinetic analysis of organophosphorus pesticide are demonstrated. The performance evaluation and algorithm improvement in those applications are also discussed.