Breath Analysis
VOC-based sensing for non-invasive health screening
Exhaled breath is one of the richest non-invasive sample matrices available to clinical research: a mixture of hundreds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) whose composition tracks metabolic and pathophysiological state. Extracting that signal reliably is a demanding sensing and analytics problem — one JLM Innovation has worked on for nearly 15 years, engineering the chemical-sensor platforms, instrumentation and data-analysis methods that turn exhaled breath into quantitative measurement.With over 25 years of expertise, JLM Innovation develops advanced hardware and software solutions for data acquisition and analysis. Our technology is at the forefront of chemical sensing, IoT applications, and smart data systems—enabling precise, reliable insights across industries.
The measurement chain
A breath analyser is a system, not a sensor. VOCs occur at trace-to-ultratrace concentrations against a variable background of humidity, temperature and ambient air, so performance depends on controlling every stage:
Sampling
reproducible breath capture under controlled sampling conditions
Sensing
gas-sensor and multi-sensor arrays (metal-oxide, gold-nanoparticle, FET and other technologies) matched to the target VOCs
Instrumentation
temperature-controlled, low-volume sensing chambers and low-power electronics, from benchtop to handheld
Analysis
feature extraction, multivariate statistics (PCA, PLS) and machine learning for quantification and pattern recognition in high-dimensional, drift-prone data
Instruments
SniffPhone
a miniaturised, smartphone-coupled breath analyser for gastric-disease screening. Purpose-built gas sensors acquire the breath signal; the phone controls the measurement, relays data to an analysis server and returns a result. Horizon 2020 "Most Innovative Project," 2018.
Modular Breath Analyzer (MBA)
a modular electronic-nose prototype built by JLM, combining gold-nanoparticle and metal-oxide sensors with machine-learning classification of sensor-response curve shapes; evaluated in gastric-cancer breath studies.
LCAOS handheld instrument
a handheld analyser integrating silicon-nanowire FET sensors with gold-nanoparticle resistive sensors, developed for early, point-of-care lung-cancer screening research.
Multi-Channel Gas Sensor Characterization Platform
A benchtop system for parallel testing of up to eight chemiresistive gas sensors, each in a standard 4-pin TO socket with independently set bias (1 V / 10 V) and DAC-controlled heater temperature. A low-dead-volume aluminium chamber gives fast, uniform gas exposure to all channels, with real-time USB logging of sensor and heater data.
Research
JLM Innovation instruments and data-analysis tools have been used to develop and validate exhaled-breath diagnostics with leading clinical and nanotechnology partners. A selection of peer-reviewed breath-analysis papers:
- Infrared Spectroscopic Electronic Noses: An Innovative Approach for Exhaled Breath Sensing
J. Glöckler, J. Mitrovics, S. Beeken, M. Leja, T. Welearegay, L. Österlund, H. Haick, G. Shani, C. Di Natale, R. Murillo, G. Flores-Rangel, F. Bricio-Arzubide, R. Pinilla, R. Vargas, C. Saboya, B. Mizaikoff, L. Díaz de León-Martínez, “Infrared Spectroscopic Electronic Noses: An Innovative Approach for Exhaled Breath Sensing,” ACS Sensors, 2025, 10 (1), 427–438. - Ultratrace eNose Sensing of VOCs toward Breath Analysis Applications Utilizing an eNose-Based Analyzer
J. Glöckler, C. Jaeschke, M. Padilla, J. Mitrovics, B. Mizaikoff, “Ultratrace eNose Sensing of VOCs toward Breath Analysis Applications Utilizing an eNose-Based Analyzer,” ACS Measurement Science Au, 2024, 4 (2), 184–187. - Modular Point-of-Care Breath Analyzer and Shape Taxonomy-Based Machine Learning for Gastric Cancer Detection
L. Mezmale, M. Padilla, J. Mitrovics, et al., “Modular Point-of-Care Breath Analyzer and Shape Taxonomy-Based Machine Learning for Gastric Cancer Detection,” Diagnostics, 2022, 12 (2), 491. - Modular Breath Analyzer (MBA): A Breath Analyzer Platform Based on a Modular eNose Concept for Breath Diagnostics
C. Jaeschke, M. Padilla, J. Glöckler, I. Polaka, M. Leja, V. Veliks, J. Mitrovics, M. Leja, B. Mizaikoff, “Modular Breath Analyzer (MBA): Introduction of a Breath Analyzer Platform Based on an Innovative and Unique, Modular eNose Concept for Breath Diagnostics and Utilization of Calibration Transfer Methods in Breath Analysis Studies,” Molecules, 2021, 26 (12), 3776. - Sensing Gastric Cancer via Point-of-Care Sensor Breath Analyzer
M. Leja, J. M. Kortelainen, I. Polaka, E. Turppa, J. Mitrovics, M. Padilla, P. Mochalski, G. Shuster, R. Pohle, D. Kashanin, et al., “Sensing gastric cancer via point-of-care sensor breath analyzer,” Cancer, 2021, 127 (8), 1286–1292. - Overview on SNIFFPHONE: A Portable Device for Disease Diagnosis
C. Jaeschke, M. Padilla, E. Turppa, I. Polaka, O. Gonzalez, K. Richardson, J. Pajukanta, J. M. Kortelainen, G. Shani, P. Mochalski, M. Leja, J. Mitrovics, H. Haick, “Overview on SNIFFPHONE: A Portable Device for Disease Diagnosis.” - An eNose-Based Method Performing Drift Correction for Online VOC Detection under Dry and Humid Conditions
C. Jaeschke, J. Glöckler, M. Padilla, J. Mitrovics, B. Mizaikoff, “An eNose-based method performing drift correction for online VOC detection under dry and humid conditions,” Analytical Methods, 2020, 12 (39), 4724–4733. - iHWG-MOX: A Hybrid Breath Analysis System Combining Substrate-Integrated Hollow Waveguide IR Spectroscopy with Metal Oxide Gas Sensors
J. Glöckler, C. Jaeschke, Y. Kocaöz, V. Kokoric, E. Tütüncü, J. Mitrovics, B. Mizaikoff, “iHWG-MOX: A Hybrid Breath Analysis System via the Combination of Substrate-Integrated Hollow Waveguide Infrared Spectroscopy with Metal Oxide Gas Sensors,” ACS Sensors, 2020, 5 (4), 1033–1039. - An Innovative Modular eNose System Based on a Unique Combination of Analog and Digital Metal Oxide Sensors
C. Jaeschke, J. Glöckler, O. El Azizi, O. Gonzalez, M. Padilla, J. Mitrovics, B. Mizaikoff, “An Innovative Modular eNose System Based on a Unique Combination of Analog and Digital Metal Oxide Sensors,” ACS Sensors, 2019, 4 (9), 2277–2281. - A Novel Modular System for Breath Analysis Using Temperature Modulated MOX Sensors
C. Jaeschke, O. Gonzalez, M. Padilla, K. Richardson, J. Glöckler, J. Mitrovics, B. Mizaikoff, “A Novel Modular System for Breath Analysis Using Temperature Modulated MOX Sensors,” Proceedings, 2019, 14 (1), 49. - A Novel Modular eNose System Based on Commercial MOX Sensors to Detect Low Concentrations of VOCs for Breath Gas Analysis
C. Jaeschke, O. Gonzalez, J. J. Glöckler, L. T. Hagemann, K. E. Richardson, F. Adrover, M. Padilla, J. Mitrovics, B. Mizaikoff, “A Novel Modular eNose System Based on Commercial MOX Sensors to Detect Low Concentrations of VOCs for Breath Gas Analysis,” Proceedings, 2018, 2 (13), 993.
Work with us
From feasibility study to validated prototype, JLM Innovation supports breath-analysis development across chemical sensing, instrumentation and chemometric data analysis.