Blood viscosity sensor for point-of-care medicine

Mechanical resonators can be used for measuring the density and viscosity of liquids. The principle is that, when immersed in liquid, the resonance frequency and quality factor of the device experiment a change proportional to the liquid properties. These devices can be used to build compact point-of-care devices to monitor the blood viscosity of patients. However, blood is a complex fluid that shows viscous behavior that deviate from the ideal Newtonian model. The goal of this project is to study the dependence of the measured blood viscosity on the resonance frequency and vibration amplitude of a mechanical resonator.

[1] Manzaneque, T., Ruiz-Díez, V., Hernando-Garcia, J., Wistrela, E., Kucera, M., Schmid, U., & Sánchez-Rojas, J. L. (2014). Piezoelectric MEMS resonator-based oscillator for density and viscosity sensing. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 220, 305-315.

Assignment

• Perform a literature review on MEMS resonators and density-viscosity sensing.
• Design and optimize MEMS resonators based on aluminum nitride, using Comsol.
• Fabricate the designed devices, using the fabrication tools already available at EKL.
• Characterize the resulting devices with impedance measurements under different liquids.

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Last modified: 2023-02-10