A Piezoelectric Flexural Plate Wave (FPW) Bio-MEMS Sensor with Improved Molecular Mass Detection for Point-of-Care Diagnostics

• Main Authors: Walk Christian, Wiemann Matthias, Görtz Michael, Weidenmüller Jens, Jupe Andreas, Seidl Karsten
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter 2019-09-01
• Series: Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering
• Subjects: flexural plate wave (fpw); bio-mems; point of care; multiplexing; rsv
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2019-0067

A piezoelectric FPW-sensor has been developed for a point of care device in this work. The Bio- MEMS FPW-sensor consists of an electrode configuration termed as an interdigital transducer (IDT) placed on a membrane. An input IDT excites and an output IDT detects the propagating acoustic waves through a PZT layer. Design optimizations and fabrication improvements of the FPW-sensor led to significantly reduced attenuation of the wave signal and the damping of the propagating waves between the IDTs. The working principle of mass loading is shown using different low-viscous liquids. A densitydependent sensitivity of -0.39 MHz/g/cm³ was evaluated. After the membrane was functionalized, the Bio-MEMS FPW-sensor was used to measure a specific chemokine in complex solution. By design improvements, the resolution was significantly increased from 0.7 Hz/nM to 14 Hz/nM.