With this proposal we introduce antigen-antibody reaction detection technique based on the novel technological platform of ultrasound transducers, known as capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers (CMUT). This platform involves using of large arrays of electrostatically driven membranes, each of which has tens of micrometers in diameter, and up to several micrometers membrane thickness. This platform is superior to the QCM when measuring the mass of the species deposited over the vibrating surface thanks to the extremely low moving mass of the membrane. Proofs of the concepts, showing femtogram sensitivity and significantly reduced response time were made by our group and other groups those active in CMUT development. Moreover, there are at least three more innovative aspects, which are specific exclusively to CMUT application: a) real-time matrix detection/measurement, since fabrication of large CMUT arrays is technologically feasible; b) additional information extraction by sensing the viscosity and losses in the medium adjacent to the sensor’s active surface; c) phased array operation to be used to maintain the directional flow and various mixing regimes of analytes.
Project funding:
Projects funded by the Research Council of Lithuania (RCL), Projects carried out by researchers’ teams
Project results:
For the first time we demonstrated that the structure of capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers is suitable not only for the mass detection, but also for the other material properties, such as elasticity modulus or viscosity. These measurement capabilities we detected when experimenting with the antigen-antibody interaction. Also for the first time we demonstrated the microelectromechanical structure of the biosensor can be used for detection of the specific mass of the analyte. The most important research results are published in the research paper “Capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers (CMUT) for resonant gravimetric immunosensing” (Microchimica Acta 181(13-14):1749-1757).
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
