Design of MEMS capacitive sensor for the identification of cancerous blood cell: A simulation study

Abstract

In this paper, an array of MEMS capacitive sensors has been designed for the detection of malignancy in white blood cells (WBC) on the basis of change in dielectric permittivity. Here, an electrostatic based capacitive micro sensor is designed with a pair of rectangular shaped identical electrodes and extended for an array to facilitate such identification on an average of 1000 cells at a time. The electroporation process is followed for identifying the malignant cells as polarization of cell membrane depends on frequency range of 20 kHz – 10 MHz. In order to do so, a double shell electrical model of WBC is designed through which the polarization potential of 1V is achieved with a membrane potential of about 0.5-1V. Thus, the same excitation potential of 1V is applied between the electrodes of MEMS capacitive sensors and the induced polarization changes permittivity that finally reflects a distinguishable change in the output of capacitive sensor. Therefore, it can discriminate a normal cell from affected one in terms of change in capacitive value. This work is executed in multiphysics based simulation software.