Microfabricated sensors for biomedical applications

Abstract

Biomedical sensors couple physiological variables in living and other biologic systems to electronic instrumentation for making measurements. Microfabrication technology such as used in the microelectronics industry has been applied in the fabrication of biomedical sensors. Thin- and thick-film processing is especially well-suited to fabricating physical and chemical sensors due to the special properties of these films and the relative low costs for their production compared to other microfabrication technologies. These technologies can yield reproducible, batch-fabricated, and relatively inexpensive sensors. Devices such as biopotential electrodes, chemical sensors, temperature sensors, and transducers for measuring force and displacement can be fabricated using these techniques, and their small size and relatively low cost makes them especially useful for biomedical applications. Examples of devices produced over the years by our group at Case Western Reserve University, Duke University, the University of North Carolina and the Memphis Joint Program in Biomedical Engineering include: thin-film infant biopotential electrodes, thin- and thick-film temperature sensors, ion-selective electrodes, and microcell bioanalytical sensors. The multidisciplinary, multi-university program has made it possible to study biomedical sensors from fundamental underlying principles through biomedical applications.