Improvement of odor blender using electroosmotic pumps and SAW atomizer for low-volatile scents

This paper reports an improvement of miniaturized six-component odor blender using electroosmotic (EO) pumps and a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device. Tiny droplets of liquid odor samples spouted from EO pumps were atomized by SAW atomizer into odorant vapors to generate smells rapidly even the scents of low volatile substances which typically requires much time to release. The device works soundlessly, does not produce heat to the nearby environment, and is more robust against bubble comparing with an olfactory display composed of the widely used inkjet devices. In this research, a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) gas sensor was used to measure the intensities of generated odor vapors. As a result, the capability to blend up to three odor components was confirmed.