Sensors for Hostile, High Temperature,

High Pressure and High Shock Environments 

The core development team at Phase Sensors consists of 6 talented and experienced scientists. Highlights of the team include a PhD materials scientist with a background in hostile environment micro sensors; a firmware scientist with 15 years of experience coding for low level hardware (firmware, bare-metal BIOS, drivers); an electrical developer with 40 years of circuit design experience working at Ratheon, SPAR Aerospace, and the National Institute for Nanotechnology; a hardware scientist with experience in ultra-sensitive fluid properties analysis; a mechanical designer with experience in sensor element design, high pressure feedthrough design and environmentally-sealed sensor housings; an electrical developer with expertise in electromagnetic modelling.      

 

We rapidly develop complicated sensing systems from designing the sensor element, building the data acquisition platform, through to designing the real-time web interface. 

 

Dr. Christopher M.B. Holt has published 24 journal manuscripts, six patent applications and two of these applications have become full US patents and licensed to a private corporation.  He has a passion for building new microfabricated devices and figuring out challenging electronics problems. 

 

Richard Hull previously worked as a Research Scientist in the Chemical and Materials Science Department at the University of Alberta. He graduated from Oxford University in 2009 with a degree in Nanotechnology. His initial career was in the aerospace industry as an Electronics R&D developer on defense projects dealing with military radar systems in the United Kingdom. He later worked for the Canadian Space Agency at SPAR Aerospace in Toronto. His area of expertise includes power electronics, data processing, telecommunications, and robotics.

 

Richard Helfmann previously worked as a research associate at the National Institute for Nanotechnology with Dr. Thomas Thundat.  He developed a piezoelectric driving circuit and fluid positioning system for a nanomechanical fluid analysis system.  This system measures density, viscosity, and performs FTIR style analysis on picolitre volume fluid samples. 

 

Terry Greeniaus previously worked with a team at Dell/EMC who designed  high-speed distributed storage appliances for use in enterprise data centers.  Before this position he worked with PowerLogix building proprietary BIOS code for upgrading Apple desktops and laptops.  Terry does OS development, plays the piano, and rides his Harley in his spare time. 

 

David Rutledge previously worked with Dr. Jason Olfert at the University of Alberta Mechanical Engineering Department designing and building a measuring system for on-board particle and gas-phase emissions of diesel and gasoline vehicles which is published in two publications. At Phase he has designed the mechanical components for two sensor including environmentally sealed housings, high-pressure feedthroughs, and a unique, high pressure, high surface area, ultra-robust sensor head for EIS measurement. 

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Mohammad Abdolrazzaghi is an invited reviewer at more than 10 journals including IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Journal of Applied Physics, and IEEE Sensors Journal. At Phase he has established analytical theories behind the existing and ongoing sensory designs to monitor electrical properties of used oil, detecting metallic particle in wear debris, and water quality assessment, all in industrial environments.

 

We have developed solutions for dozens of interesting problems over the last seven years.  Some of these conquered challenges include:

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A secure and scalable platform for monitoring sensor data at multiple remote locations. We implemented a solution for monitoring (pH, conductivity, ORP, fluorescent tracer, brass and steel corrosion rate) in recirculating cooling water systems.

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Implemented a solution for monitoring pressure and temperature for offset oil wells during fracturing that incorporates rapid real time logging and GPS well location data.

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Designed a compact oil fouling test system that is used in laboratories to quantify the efficacy of anti-foulants with specific oil feedstocks for delayed coking. 

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Assisted in implementing a low cost wireless oil testing system that outlines the age of engine oil and tells a customer if there are any contaminants in their oil. 

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Designed a USB sensor that can measure the thermal conductivity of fluids. Allowing the user to just plug the sensor in and watch the measurement in real-time on their PC.