BIOMICROSENSOR TECHNOLOGY: DEVELOPMENT OF SAW MASS DETECTOR DEVICES

THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROGRAM WILL BE TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SAW-BASED CHEMICAL SENSORS (BIONS) PROPRIETARY TO ICS BY DEVELOPMENTS IN SURFACE AREA ENHANCEMENT, SURFACE COATING, RECEPTOR MOLECULE BINDING, INTERFACE ELECTRONICS AND EXPERIENCE WITH SAMPLES OF KNOWN UTILITY. WE WILL ALSO BRING THE SENSOR/INTERFACE UNITS CLOSER TO A COMMERCIALLY USEFUL DESIGN. THE EFFORT WILL INCLUDE A COMBINATION OF CHEMICAL AND ELECTRONIC SKILLS TO MODIFY THE SYSTEMS IN SUCH A WAY AS TO REDUCE NOISE AND IMPROVE GENERAL PERFORMANCE. PROTOTYPE SAW TRANSDUCERS HAVE BEEN BUILT THAT ARE CAPABLE OF SENSING AND QUANTITATING VARIOUS CHEMICALS IN LIQUIDS. THEY ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BEING PATENTED. THE DEVICES ARE CURRENTLY ABLE TO QUANTITATIVELY MEASURE ANTIGEN-ANTIBODY INTERACTIONS AND OTHER RECEPTOR-LIKE STRUCTURES USING THE MASS CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH MODULATIONS OF SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVES. A PROPRIETARY METHODOLOGY FOR TREATING THE SURFACES OF PIEZOELECTRIC CRYSTALS THAT ENABLES THE CRYSTALS TO BE USED FOR DIRECT ANALYSIS OF SPECIFIC LIGANDS IN LIQUID ENVIRONMENTS WILL BE IMPROVED AND EXTENDED.