CMR UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

BANGALORE – 562149

CASE STUDY
ON

“BIOSENSORS”

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the

degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING
For the academic year 2019 – 2020
MEMS
4BEC612

Submitted by

ALFIYA KHANUM
(16UG09002)

Under the Guidance of

MR. AJAY SUDHIR BALE
Assistant Professor
Dept. of ECE, CMRU
Bangalore- 562149
 SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
Department of Electronics and communication
Engineering

Certificate
This is to certify that Mr. /Ms. ALFIYA KHANUM bearing Register Number

16UG09002 of VI semester has submitted the case study report in subject MEMS , code

4BEC612 prescribed by the CMR University, Bengaluru for the academic year 2019 – 2020

MARKS

Maximum Marks Marks Obtained

10

Signature of Student

Signature of Faculty-In-Charge Head of the Department

Date: 06/04/2019
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CONTENTS
SERIAL PAGE
NO NO
01 INTRODUCTION 02
02 BIOSENSOR’S DESIGN 03-04
03 STRUCTURE OF BIOSENSOR’S 05
04 TYPES OF BIOSENSOR’S 06
05 APPLICATIONS 06-07
06 ADVANTAGES 08
07 DISADVANTAGES 08
08 FUTURE SCOPE 09
09 PROPOSED SULUTIONS 09
10 REFERENCES 10

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INTRODUCTION

Improvement of "life quality" is one of the most important objectives of global research efforts.
Naturally, the quality of life is closely linked to the control of diseases, food quality, safety, and quality
of our environment. In all these fields a continuous, fast and sensitive monitoring is required to control
key parameters.

The physician, environmental scientist, public health official, industrial chemist and battlefield
commander often have an urgent need for precise measurements of minute quantities of substances in
blood, water, food, or other materials. Securing precise measurements of minute quantities has
traditionally required an extended time. Now, however, new hybrids of biological and electrochemical
components seem likely to be the foundation of equipments providing highly precise, nearly
instantaneous measurements of substances in blood, water, air, and soil.

The youthful but rapidly developing device which promises to revolutionize analytical procedures is
the Biosensor. Biosensors, which come in a large variety of sizes and shapes, are used to monitor
changes in environmental conditions. They can detect and measure concentrations of specific bacteria
or hazardous chemicals, they can measure acidity levels (pH), biosensors can use bacteria and detect
them, too.
Biosensors promise more than a mere streamlining of the slow, laborious process of identifying and
measuring substances. They are the key to number of advances in medical and scientific technology.
Researchers continue to exploit the potential of biosensors in speeding new drugs trials, monitoring
and regulating time released medication, as well as the higher profile use of detecting toxic agents and
explosives that are the deadliest weapon in the arsenals of terrorists and rogue states. Biosensors,
combining a biological, recognition element and a suitable transducer, represent very promising tools.

The history of biosensors started in the year 1962 with the development of enzyme electrodes by the
scientist Leland C. Clark. Since then, research communities from various fields such as VLSI, Physics,
Chemistry, and Material Science have come together to develop more sophisticated, reliable and
mature bio sensing devices for applications in the fields of medicine, agriculture, biotechnology, as
well as the military and bioterrorism detection and prevention. He utilized platinum (Pt) anodes to
distinguish oxygen.

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BIOSENSOR’S DESIGN

A biosensor is a device for the detection of analyte that combines a biological component with a
physicochemical detector component.
Biosensor consists of a bio element and a sensor element. The bio element may be an enzyme,
antibody, living cells, or tissue. The sensing element may be electric current, electric potential,
and so on. A detailed list of different possible bio elements and sensor-elements is shown below.
Different combinations of bio elements and sensor-elements constitute several types of
biosensors to suit a vast pool of applications

Figure 1. Factors that assist to understand importance of biosensors [1]

Biosensor consists of 3 parts:

 The sensitive biological element (example tissue, microorganisms, organelles, cell

receptors, enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids, etc), a biologically derived material or
biomimic. The sensitive elements can be created by biological engineering. These
elements interact selectively with the target analyte, assuring the selectivity of
sensors.
 The transducer or the detector element (works in a physicochemical way; optical,
piezoelectric, electrochemical, etc.) that transforms the signal resulting from the
interaction of the analyte with the biological element into another signal (i.e.,
transducers) that can be more easily measured and quantified. The traditional
transducers are electrochemical, optical and thermal. Electrochemical transducers
measure changes in current or voltage; optical transducers measure changes in
fluorescence, absorbance or reflectance; and acoustic transducers measure changes in
frequency resulting from small changes in mass bound to their surface.

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 Associated electronics or signal processors that is primarily responsible for the

display of the results in a user-friendly way.

Figure 2. A schematic representation of biosensors (Elias, 2015) [1]

The selectivity of the biosensor for the target analyte is mainly determined by the bio
recognition element, while the sensitivity of the biosensor is greatly influenced by the
transducer.

Why Biosensor’s are used?

Biosensors was chosen for this particular case study so as to know the various applications
which explains the extent of the contribution of the factors in biosensor illustrating that can
enhance our knowing about importance of biosensors, their design, uses, advanced and their
detection ways. The case study theory in the study shows benefits of biosensors.

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STRUCTURE OF BIOSENOSRS

Figure 3. Schematic diagram showing the main components of a biosensor [1]

The biocatalyst (a) converts the substrate to product. This reaction is determined by the
transducer (b) which converts it to an electrical signal. The output from the transducer is
amplified (c), processed (d) and displayed (e).

(a) The individual’s analyte diffuse starting with the effect of the surface of the biosensor.
(b) The analyte reacts especially and proficiently for the individuals existing component” of
the biosensor. (c) This reaction transforms the individual’s physio-chemical properties of the
transducer surface. (d) This prompts an Advance in the optical alternately electronic
properties of the transducer surface. (e) The individuals convert for optical/electronic
properties will a chance to be measured, changed again under electrical sign which might a
chance to be amplified.

The electrical signal from the transducer is often low and superimposed upon a relatively
high and noisy (i.e.: containing a high frequency signal component of an apparently random
nature, due to electrical interference or generated within the electronic components of the
transducer) baseline. The signal processing normally involves subtracting a ‘reference’
baseline signal, derived from a similar transducer without any bio catalytic membrane, from
the sample signal, amplifying the resultant signal difference and electrically filtering
(smoothing) out the unwanted signal noise. The relatively slow nature of the biosensor
response considerably eases the problem of electrical noise filtration. The analogue signal
produced at this stage may be output directly but is usually converted to a digital signal and
then displayed.

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TYPES OF BIOSENSORS

The biosensors are 5 types: calorimetric biosensors, potentiometric biosensors, acoustic wave
biosensors, amperometric biosensors, and optical biosensors. There are several types of
biosensors based on the sensor devices and the type of biological materials used.

Figure 4. Shows main types of biosensors

APPLICATIONS

There are many potential applications of biosensors of various types. The main requirements
for a biosensor approach to be valuable in terms of research and commercial applications are
the identification of a target molecule, availability of a suitable biological recognition
element, and the potential for disposable portable detection systems to be preferred to
sensitive laboratory-based techniques in some situations.

 Food analysis
 Study of Biomolecules and their interactions
 Drug development, crime detection
 Medical diagnosis
 Environmental field monitoring
 Industrial process control
 Manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and replacement of organs

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Figure 5. Types and applications of biosensors [1]

Some of the other applications of biosensors recently developed are as follows:

 Ring Sensor
 Medical tele sensor chip
 Micro cantilevers
 Detecting Cancer and Health Abnormalities
 Body Sensors
 Anthropometry

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ADVANTAGES
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUP AC) is defining biosensors as a
subgroup of chemical sensors in which a biologically based mechanism is used for analyte
detection but these devices have several advantages over other sensors. Some of them can be
mentioned as:
 One characteristic of biosensor that distinguishes them from other bioanalytical
methods is that the analyte tracers or catalytic products can be directly and
instantaneously measured.
 These devices are more accurate
 Continuous monitoring capability
 Biosensors can regenerate and reuse the immobilized biological recognition element.
 Since biosensors are relatively small, they can be used separately or as modular
detectors in larger systems
 They can be used in remote areas to note changes regarding environment and in places
where manual, monitoring is not safe.
 They can monitor changes at low concentrations.
 These devices are sensitive, inexpensive, stable and cost effective.
 Don't need to be used by professionals only.
 Different types based on different principles make it applicable in almost all fields.

DISADVANTAGES

 Biocompatibility and biofouling are critical issues in case of in-vivo measurements.

All the products might be consumed if a sub product of such form is produced.

 Reactions depend on reactants and if all the reactants are consumed the processing
may stop.

 The products might react with reactants and result ill some other product that may be
harmful (usually occurs in biosensors involving whole cell)

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FUTURE SCOPE

Biosensors have a very wide range of applications that aim to improve the quality of life.
Biosensors are nowadays ubiquitous in different areas of healthcare. Pregnancy tests and
glucose monitoring sensors are the two main examples of very successful biosensor devices.
A range of transduction techniques such as electrochemical, optical and acoustic, can be used
for biosensors. High-affinity reagents such as antibodies, enzymes and synthetic
biomolecules can be coupled to the transducer in order to provide specificity of the
biosensors. Nanotechnology has had a major impact on recent advances of bio sensing
technology.

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

There are various technical difficulties which can be resolved using few alternatives if
followed:

(a) contamination: bio elements and chemicals used in the biosensors need to be prevented
from leaking out of the biosensor over time (serious issue for non-disposable ones).

(b) immobilization of biomolecules: to avoid contamination, biomolecules are attached to the

transducer as strongly as possible, but the problem with this is that the behavior of enzymes
when absorbed on the surface is not well understood (reaction of enzymes in free solutions is
better understood.

(c) cost: research should be focused on the development of low-cost biosensors.

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REFERENCES

[1]http://www.sapub.org/global/showpaperpdf.aspx?doi=10.5923/j.ajbe.20160606.03

[2]http://www.sapub.org/global/showpaperpdf.aspx?doi=10.5923/j.ajbe.20160606.03

More information on biosensors

[3]file:///C:/Users/alfiya/Desktop/ALL%20FILES%20IN%20ONE/ALFIYA%20FOLDER/D
ocuments/bio%20sensors.pdf

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