Technical Abstract: For more than 40 years we have enjoyed tremendous success with the current family of dispersive and filter spectrometers. They are reliable and possess high signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. These instruments opened the analytical world to new levels of speed and ease for chemometric measurements of compositional properties of materials. There are two reasons to need a new series of spectrometers: 1. Our existing instruments are aging and need to be replaced and 2. Analyses we are having to perform today exceed the capabilities of our current instrumentation. These instruments can either be replaced by something with more flexibility and capabilities that what our dispersive monochrometers have evolved into or with cheaper, faster single purpose sensors that can be replaced as the need requires. There are several kinds of applications that make either of these scenarios feasible. If an analyte has the same functional groups as the matrix, but is of lower molecular weight, if there is a property to be measured which has unique spectral features outside the spectral region of current instrumentation and if a simple sensor could replace and expensive spectrometer system. These possibilities will be explored in concert with available technologies.