In the NextGenMicrofluidics project, Erba contributes to the development of test strip based sensors for potassium home monitoring. Its main activities are related to microfluidic test strip design, printed electrochemical sensor production, as well as system integration and industrialization.
Erba Technologies Austria GmbH is part of the Erba Mannheim Group, a global company delivering innovative, sustainable, and affordable in-vitro diagnostics solutions for the developing nations of the world. Erba Technologies Austria comprises a R&D team dedicated to the development of clinical laboratory instruments and consumables as well as a production site for electrochemical sensor cartridges.
Demo Case 3 aims on the development of smart sensor teststrips for electrochemical measurement of potassium concentration in whole blood samples. Within this project Erba contributes to the development of the microfluidic system and channel designs for feeding and control of sample and calibration fluids. This microfluidic systems include functionalities such as separation membranes and passive valves. As another task in the project, Erba is working on the upscaling of the fabrication process of printed electrochemical sensors for potassium and haemolysis. These will be manufactured on polymer films using screen printing and fluid dispensing technologies. Furthermore, Erba contributes to their characterization, and integration of printed sensors with the microfluidic systems in order to form the actual sensor teststrip devices. In a subsequent task, further conductive layers are manufactured on the polymer substrates using screen printing technology. These are used for electronic readout of the sensor signal and integration of a semiconductor chip for signal processing and transmission of measurement data to a mobile device.