The design incorporates a chemical preconcentrator and a surface acoustic wave (SAW) detector array. This detector isn't looking for a gradual change in the background, thanks to the chemical preconcentrator, the detector is looking for spikes in a specific time window.

Nerve agents and blister agents can be identified every 20 seconds.

Defiant's engineering prototype that was tested at Sandia National Lab under the lab's Small Business Technical Assistance Program or SBTAP. The gas module, next to the quarter, and the electronics board are all that are needed for UAV/UGV payloads and OEM applications.

Defiant's Canary-One. It uses ambient air; Canary uses no specialty gases for operation. Canary has an analytical cycle time of is capable of reporting calibrated analytes every 20 seconds. The system cycles every 20 seconds, though shorter cycles can be programmed. Its dimensions are 7-1/2"L x 5-1/16"W x 2-1/8". Canary will run continuously for 4 hours on a nickel metal hydride battery. Test completed at Sandia National Labs show selectivity for phosphonates >6000 to 1 over diesel and >500,000 to 1 over water. Canary can be used in handheld application or remotely. In remote applications (e.g. UAV, UGV, facility monitor) data is streamed through a serial port. The user can receive response data over time and/or chemical name and concentration via serial.

Data that was collected during SBTAP testing. The data shows Canary-One sensing dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP) in the presence of a much higher concentration of diesel fumes. As expected, this is completely consistent with the technology founders of Defiant developed while employed at Sandia.