Wideband dielectric spectroscopy for bacteria sensing applications (Imec)

The biological activities inside human bodies are regulated by the electrical and mechanical properties of cells and its constituent molecules. Pathological changes within the cells due to diseases are accompanied by a corresponding change in these physical properties and consequently can be used to differentiate between the healthy and diseased cells. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is one of the techniques used for characterization of purity of cells. The characterization involves measuring the response of the dielectric constant with frequency. The dielectric response shows the amount of polarization of the cell volume which is high at low frequencies and almost none at high frequencies. The frequency band during which the response makes this transition is known as 𝛽 dispersion. By observing the changes in the pattern for 𝛽 dispersion, the percentage of healthy cells can be estimated. The location of 𝛽 dispersion frequency band depends on the type of molecules, ranging from 10Hz for tissues till 5GHz for water. In this project, we will use the previously design wide-range RFIC or commercial off-the-shelf components to sense the different kinds of bacteria, by detecting the dielectric constant over a wide frequency range.

• This project comes with a student stipend!

Contact

dr. Masoud Babaie

Electronic Circuits and Architectures Group

Department of Microelectronics

Last modified: 2020-03-05