by Marina KHALIZEVA, journalist At the end of 2011 Optosense design company attached to Rusnano state corporation in St. Petersburg launched production of optical components for explosive gas infrared sensors characterized by high application properties due to nanotechnologies used. Up to 120,000 innovative units will be produced here annually and are called for by oil and gas, chemical, coal-mining and electric power industries, telecommunication networks and municipal housing economy. Alexander Maksyutenko, Director General of the company, stated in a press release distributed by Rusnano: "The project... can safely be called social. Our products are used at top danger enterprises, where any accident is connected with human health risks. Diagnostic equipment with our sensors included can prevent it. The instruments of the previous generation break quickly under severe operation conditions in the presence of gases in air 'poisoning' sensors or give incorrect readings in case of increased humidity or lack of oxygen. The Optosense sensors are absolutely resistant to these conditions. Therefore, consumers of our products can always be sure that they will be warned against increased concentration of explosive gases under any conditions." It should be noted that our company emerged in the market in 2009, however, its history goes back to the 1990s. Just then, in 1995, two St. Petersburg companies, стр. 38 IGM Instruments, a designer of instruments and equipment for gas and fluid media testing, and Infrared Components Ltd., a manufacturer of infrared semiconductor components (LEDs and photocells), joined efforts for creation of a new generation of gas analyzers based on semiconductor optocouples* of the in-house production. The scientific and technical strategy of the new group was based on the ideas of Mikhail Maksyutenko, brother of the present-day director general of Optosense, and Alexander Litvak, both graduates of the Ioffe Physico ... Читать далее