MEMS Sensors for Diagnostics and Treatment in the Fight Against COVID-19 and Other Pandemics

Muhammad Shahbaz Khan,Jameel Ahmed,Muhammad Owais Tariq,Menaa Nawaz

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3073958

Muhammad Shahbaz Khan, Jameel Ahmed + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3073958

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Abstract

As the world is going through an existential global health crisis, i.e., the outbreak of novel coronavirus-caused respiratory disease (Covid-19), the healthcare systems of all the countries require readily available, low cost and highly precise equipment for the rapid diagnostics, monitoring, and treatment of the disease. The performance and precision of this equipment are solely dependent on the sensors being used. The advancement in research and development of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) based sensors during recent years, has resulted in the improvement of the conventional equipment being used in biomedical and health care applications. Microfluidics (Lab-on-a-chip) and MEMS sensors are now being used extensively for quick and accurate detection, progression monitoring, and treatment of various diseases including Covid-19. The ongoing miniaturization and design improvements have resulted in more precise sensors and actuators for healthcare applications, even for micro and nanoscale measurements in drug delivery and other invasive applications. This article aims at reviewing the MEMS sensors being used or which can be used in the important equipment for the detection and treatment of Covid-19 or other pandemics. An insight into various designs and working principles of the research-based and commercially available MEMS sensors is presented. The study highlights the role and importance of MEMS sensors in the improvement of equipment with conventional sensors. MEMS sensors outperform the conventional sensors due to their small size ( 1 μm-1mm), negligible weight, prompt response, precise measurements, portability, and ease of integration with electronic circuitry.

Highlights

With every passing day, the number of covid-19 patients has been increasing since the outbreak
Two micro pressure sensors were integrated with a meso channel. This arrangement resulted in the achievement of 90% better deflection and sensitivities of the sensor, 135% better stress generation, and managed to get 40% perforated area even if the diaphragm has been thicker validating the choice of thicker diaphragms over very thin non-perforated diaphragms for better performance
This article reviews various designs and working principles of mechanical systems (MEMS) sensors involved in the equipment used for the treatment of COVID-19, which is a limitation of this study, i.e., it only presents sensors that have been reported in context of applications related to the equipment used in the treatment of COVID-19 or proposed for biomedical applications related to the equipment

Summary

Introduction

The number of covid-19 patients has been increasing since the outbreak. The outbreak started in mid-December of 2019 [1] and has taken the world by storm since . The situation escalated after December 2019, when the World Health Organization (WHO) reported multiple cases of pneumonia of an unknown etiology in Wuhan, the city of Hubei Province in China, by their health authorities. On January 8, 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention took only a few days to officially announce it as a novel coronavirus that is the causative pathogen of COVID19 [2]. By the end of January 2020, the WHO announced this outbreak as a public health emergency around the globe [3]. As of 7 March 2021, nearly 118 million confirmed cases of

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