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Fully integrated wearable impedance cytometry platform on flexible circuit board with online smartphone readout

Abbas Furniturewalla,M. Chan,Jianye Sui,K. Ahuja,M. Javanmard

Published 2018 in Microsystems & Nanoengineering

ABSTRACT

We present a wearable microfluidic impedance cytometer implemented on a flexible circuit wristband with on-line smartphone readout for portable biomarker counting and analysis. The platform contains a standard polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic channel integrated on a wristband, and the circuitry on the wristband is composed of a custom analog lock-in amplification system, a microcontroller with an 8-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and a Bluetooth module wirelessly paired with a smartphone. The lock-in amplification (LIA) system is implemented with a novel architecture which consists of the lock-in amplifier followed by a high-pass filter stage with DC offset subtraction, and a post-subtraction high gain stage enabling detection of particles as small as 2.8  μm using the 8-bit ADC. The Android smartphone application was used to initiate the system and for offline data-plotting and peak counting, and supports online data readout, analysis, and file management. The data is exportable to researchers and medical professionals for in-depth analysis and remote health monitoring. The system, including the microfluidic sensor, microcontroller, and Bluetooth module all fit on the wristband with a footprint of less than 80 cm2. We demonstrate the ability of the system to obtain generalized blood cell counts; however the system can be applied to a wide variety of biomarkers by interchanging the standard microfluidic channel with microfluidic channels designed for biomarker isolation. A flexible and wearable impedance cytometer with bluetooth connectivity offers biomarker counting and analysis. Portable health monitoring is envisioned, whereby flexible devices collect, analyze and assess health, and transmit findings to a user interface. However, this places demanding requirements on hardware and software, especially due to often subtle input signals. A team led by Mehdi Javanmard at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey now report an impedance cytometer on a flexible substrate that can be used for quantifying blood cells and detecting various biomarkers. Blood samples collected by pin-prick are inserted into a microfluidic channel on the wristband, and the data is then wirelessly communicated to an Android application for assessment. Such a device could be used on the field by health professionals for rapid blood monitoring of patients without requiring bulky lab-based equipment.

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