Sensor Technology: Growth and Challenges

Jeffrey Fortin PhD, Project Manager, GE Global Research Center

GE Global Research Center is the heart of advanced research for all of the GE businesses. One large and growing research area for the Center is sensor technology development and, in particular, microsensor technology. Sensors are key enablers for a broad range of industrial, commercial, medical, and military and homeland defense. Sensors for example, are used to monitor the performance of a system, the operating conditions of a system, and the environmental conditions surrounding a system. Sensor data can be pressure, temperature, moisture, presence of a particular chemical or compound in a gas or liquid, shock, vibration, speed, or a number of other parameters.

This talk will present an overview of the growth of the sensor application, space, and trends across multiple industries such as power generation, medical, and applications such as homeland security. The speaker will also highlight the challenges in research and development and provide examples of current MEMS-based sensor research programs ongoing at GE Research.

Dr. Jeffrey Fortin is a project manager at GE Global Research in the area of advanced sensor technology and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). He earned a B.A. in Physics from the Univ. of Southern Maine in 1996, an M.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1998, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from RPI in 2001. His background and research interest lie in microsensor design and fabrication, sensor integration and packaging, low power wireless sensing technology, and energy harvesting. Dr. Fortin has authored over 11 refereed journal articles in the area of MEMS devices, thin polymer film development, and chemical vapor deposition, as well as 7 conference publications. He is the co-author of a text on chemical vapor deposition polymerization of Parylene thin films and holds 1 US patent.