2D bitmapping approach for identification and quantitation of common base flavor adulterants using surface acoustic wave arrays and artificial neural network data analysis.

Arrays of polymer-coated surface acoustic wave microsensors are used in conjunction with a variety of signal-processing algorithms known as artificial neural networks (ANN). This format of data analysis has the capability to characterize complex mixtures of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds commonly found in base flavors. The approach described, which minimizes the number of training sets while retaining the robustness of an ANN, utilizes a 2D bitmap matrix. The matrix is obtained by converting the time domain kinetics of sensor response into a bitmap. The high data throughput of this approach enables quantitation on the order of ppm of common base flavor adulterants.