Close monitoring of the potassium concentration in blood is essential for patients suffering from conditions such as chronic heart failure (CHF) or chronic kidney disease (CKD). Therefore, measurement of potassium in capillary whole blood samples should be enabled by means of inexpensive, rapid single-use tests, which patients can perform themselves. The concept of such smart test strips comprises printed electrochemical sensors, a microfluidic system for sample preparation and delivery, a semiconductor microchip for electrical signal evaluation and a printed antenna for wireless transmission of the measurement data. Enabling high throughput and low-cost manufacturing will be crucial to allow for successful application of such self- or home testing devices. Recently, roll-to-roll technologies have been demonstrated as highly promising method for manufacturing of polymer based microfluidic detection systems.
In the NextGen Microfluidics project, partners collaborated on a point-of-care or at-home diagnostic device for detecting potassium in blood.
We present a polymer film-based sensor strip system, comprising a capillary force driven microfluidic system for separation of plasma from whole blood and sequential delivery of sample and calibrator fluid to screen printed ion-selective potassium sensors. The fluidic structures consist of specific microstructures to assist extraction and transport of blood plasma from the porous separation membrane that are directly generated in polymer films by a roll-to-roll (R2R) extrusion coating technique. These are integrated with films carrying printed solid contact ion-selective electrodes (ISE), antenna structures and circuitry for evaluation and wireless transmission of measurement values. The user-friendly home-use is enabled by energy harvesting from smartphone NFC field and result display on the smartphone.
On Thursday, March 20th from 2-3 pm CET, join speakers Martin Hajnsek of ERBA Technologies Austria and Carolin Kollegger of Infineon Technologies Austria AG to learn more about these technologies and get your questions answered in our Q&A.
NextGenMicrofluidics combines the competencies of 21 companies and research organizations along the entire value chain in the development of microfluidic lab-on-a-foil systems and offers services for the development and production of these systems for companies – from start-ups to large-scale industry. This H2020 project tested the collaboration across 5 demo cases. Beyond the project, the Microfluidics Innovation Hub (MIH) offers customers a single entry point to a wide range of existing cutting edge microfluidic technologies from Europe’s top research centres and companies, covering the entire value chain to accelerate the demonstration of exciting new scientific breakthroughs towards a working prototype, and beyond into mass manufacturing.
