Design and Fabrication of Single-Cell pH and Temperature Sensors using Minimally Invasive Microneedles

Abstract

The detection of temperature and pH at the single-cell level is hoping for the great level of clinical importance for the early detection of many diseases like cancer, diabetes, etc. In this research work, we have fabricated a micro region pH and temperature sensors by series of processes like electrolytic polishing to create needle structure, deposition of electrode materials using sputtering for measurements and finally testing in various biological medium. The structural and morphological properties were analysed using XRD and FE-SEM. The fabricated tip of the microneedle probe is nearly 5µm analysed by laser microscope. pH testing was evaluated using fish egg and the found that results were significant. Seebeck co-efficient observed for the micro region temperature sensors is relatively low compared to theoretical values. Since the sensor works at micro region, the potential difference is easily disturbed by atmospheric anomalies. Hence, the accuracy of the sensor will be further improved in the future.