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Micromachines
Special Issues
Microsensors and Microsystems for the Human Body
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Microsensors and Microsystems for the Human Body

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "E：Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 15493

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Piero Malcovati

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: microsensor interface circuits; analog integrated circuits; data converters
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Elisabetta Moisello

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: sensor interface circuits; thermal detectors; temperature to digital converters; switching DC–DC converters; wireless power transfer; bandgap references
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, microsensors and microsystems have increasingly become a part of people’s lives: research, indeed, has focused on biomedical devices as well as on other sensory systems designed to interact with the human body. Miniaturized sensors and systems have been widely employed thanks to the spread of portable and wearable devices, smart homes, Internet of Things (IoT), and telemedicine. Furthermore, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the interest in non-contact sensory systems applied to the human body, such as temperature sensors and proximity and occupancy detectors. In this framework, this Special Issue is interested in contributions on microsensors and microsystems interacting with the human body: such devices include but are not limited to biomedical systems, portable and wearable devices, temperature sensors, presence sensors, motion sensors, pressure sensors, chemical sensors, etc. Papers on any kind of sensor or system designed to interact with the human body are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Piero Malcovati
Dr. Elisabetta Moisello
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sensors
  • systems
  • MEMS
  • NEMS
  • human body
  • IoT
  • wearables
  • temperature sensor
  • presence detector
  • motion detector
  • proximity detector
  • biomedical device
  • pressure sensor
  • occupancy detector
  • smart home
  • portable device

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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10 pages, 3327 KiB  
Article
Wearable High Voltage Compliant Current Stimulator for Restoring Sensory Feedback
by Riccardo Collu, Roberto Paolini, Martina Bilotta, Andrea Demofonti, Francesca Cordella, Loredana Zollo and Massimo Barbaro
Micromachines 2023, 14(4), 782; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi14040782 - 30 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2140
Abstract
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is a promising technique for eliciting referred tactile sensations in patients with limb amputation. Although several studies show the validity of this technique, its application in daily life and away from laboratories is limited by the need for [...] Read more.
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is a promising technique for eliciting referred tactile sensations in patients with limb amputation. Although several studies show the validity of this technique, its application in daily life and away from laboratories is limited by the need for more portable instrumentation that guarantees the necessary voltage and current requirements for proper sensory stimulation. This study proposes a low-cost, wearable high-voltage compliant current stimulator with four independent channels based on Components-Off-The-Shelf (COTS). This microcontroller-based system implements a voltage-current converter controllable through a digital-to-analog converter that delivers up to 25 mA to load up to 3.6 kΩ. The high-voltage compliance enables the system to adapt to variations in electrode-skin impedance, allowing it to stimulate loads over 10 kΩ with currents of 5 mA. The system was realized on a four-layer PCB (115.9 mm × 61 mm, 52 g). The functionality of the device was tested on resistive loads and on an equivalent skin-like RC circuit. Moreover, the possibility of implementing an amplitude modulation was demonstrated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microsensors and Microsystems for the Human Body)
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19 pages, 2187 KiB  
Article
“Silicon-On-Insulator”-Based Biosensor for the Detection of MicroRNA Markers of Ovarian Cancer
by Yuri D. Ivanov, Svetlana I. Kapustina, Kristina A. Malsagova, Kristina V. Goldaeva, Tatyana O. Pleshakova, Rafael A. Galiullin, Ivan D. Shumov, Andrey F. Kozlov, Alexander V. Glukhov, Victoria K. Grabezhova, Vladimir P. Popov, Oleg F. Petrov, Vadim S. Ziborov, Nikolay E. Kushlinskii, Alexander A. Alferov, Vladimir A. Konev, Oleg B. Kovalev, Vasiliy F. Uchaikin and Alexander I. Archakov
Micromachines 2023, 14(1), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14010070 - 27 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1816
Abstract
Ovarian cancer is a gynecological cancer characterized by a high mortality rate and tumor heterogeneity. Its early detection and primary prophylaxis are difficult to perform. Detecting biomarkers for ovarian cancer plays a pivotal role in therapy effectiveness and affects patients’ survival. This study [...] Read more.
Ovarian cancer is a gynecological cancer characterized by a high mortality rate and tumor heterogeneity. Its early detection and primary prophylaxis are difficult to perform. Detecting biomarkers for ovarian cancer plays a pivotal role in therapy effectiveness and affects patients’ survival. This study demonstrates the detection of microRNAs (miRNAs), which were reported to be associated with ovarian cancer tumorigenesis, with a nanowire biosensor based on silicon-on-insulator structures (SOI-NW biosensor). The advantages of the method proposed for miRNA detection using the SOI-NW biosensor are as follows: (1) no need for additional labeling or amplification reaction during sample preparation, and (2) real-time detection of target biomolecules. The detecting component of the biosensor is a chip with an array of 3 µm wide, 10 µm long silicon nanowires on its surface. The SOI-NW chip was fabricated using the “top-down” method, which is compatible with large-scale CMOS technology. Oligonucleotide probes (oDNA probes) carrying sequences complementary to the target miRNAs were covalently immobilized on the nanowire surface to ensure high-sensitivity biospecific sensing of the target biomolecules. The study involved two experimental series. Detection of model DNA oligonucleotides being synthetic analogs of the target miRNAs was carried out to assess the method’s sensitivity. The lowest concentration of the target oligonucleotides detectable in buffer solution was 1.1 × 10−16 M. In the second experimental series, detection of miRNAs (miRNA-21, miRNA-141, and miRNA-200a) isolated from blood plasma samples collected from patients having a verified diagnosis of ovarian cancer was performed. The results of our present study represent a step towards the development of novel highly sensitive diagnostic systems for the early revelation of ovarian cancer in women. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microsensors and Microsystems for the Human Body)
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12 pages, 3793 KiB  
Article
High Responsivity Thermopile Sensors Featuring a Mosaic Structure
by Elisabetta Moisello, Maria Eloisa Castagna, Antonella La Malfa, Giuseppe Bruno, Piero Malcovati and Edoardo Bonizzoni
Micromachines 2022, 13(6), 934; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi13060934 - 11 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1689
Abstract
This paper presents a detailed analysis of a micromachined thermopile detector featuring high responsivity and a versatile mosaic structure, based on 128 60 µm × 60 µm pixels connected in series and/or in parallel. The mosaic structure is based on the one employed [...] Read more.
This paper presents a detailed analysis of a micromachined thermopile detector featuring high responsivity and a versatile mosaic structure, based on 128 60 µm × 60 µm pixels connected in series and/or in parallel. The mosaic structure is based on the one employed for the thermal sensor known as TMOS, which consists of a CMOS-SOI transistor embedded in a suspended and thermally isolated absorbing membrane, released through microelectro mechanical system (MEMS) post-processing. Two versions of the thermopile detector, featuring different series/parallel connections, are presented and were experimentally characterized. The most performant of the two achieved 2.7 × 104 V/W responsivity. The thermopile sensors’ performances are compared to that of the TMOS sensor, adopting different configurations, and their application as proximity detectors was verified through measurements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microsensors and Microsystems for the Human Body)
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18 pages, 4415 KiB  
Article
Toward an Accurate IR Remote Sensing of Body Temperature Radiometer Based on a Novel IR Sensing System Dubbed Digital TMOS
by Moshe Avraham, Jonathan Nemirovsky, Tanya Blank, Gady Golan and Yael Nemirovsky
Micromachines 2022, 13(5), 703; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi13050703 - 29 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2781
Abstract
A novel uncooled thermal sensor based on a suspended transistor, fabricated in standard CMOS-SOI process, and released by dry etching, dubbed Digital TMOS, has been developed. Using the transistor as the sensing element has advantages in terms of internal gain, low power, low-cost [...] Read more.
A novel uncooled thermal sensor based on a suspended transistor, fabricated in standard CMOS-SOI process, and released by dry etching, dubbed Digital TMOS, has been developed. Using the transistor as the sensing element has advantages in terms of internal gain, low power, low-cost technology, and high temperature sensitivity. A two channel radiometer, based on the new nano-metric CMOS-SOI-NEMS Technology, enables remote temperature sensing as well as emissivity sensing of the forehead and body temperatures of people, with high accuracy and high resolution. Body temperature is an indicator of human physiological activity and health, especially in pediatrics, surgery, and general emergency departments. This was already recognized in past pandemics such as SARS, EBOLA, and Chicken Flu. Nowadays, with the spread of COVID-19, forehead temperature measurements are used widely to screen people for the illness. Measuring the temperature of the forehead using remote sensing is safe and convenient and there are a large number of available commercial instruments, but studies show that the measurements are not accurate. The surface emissivity of an object has the most significant effect on the measured temperature by IR remote sensing. This work describes the achievements towards high–performance, low-cost, low power, mobile radiometry, to rapidly screen for fever to identify victims of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The main two aspects of the innovation of this study are the use of the new thermal sensor for measurements and the extensive modeling of this sensor. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microsensors and Microsystems for the Human Body)
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Review

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18 pages, 3343 KiB  
Review
Quartz Crystal Microbalance-Based Aptasensors for Medical Diagnosis
by Semra Akgönüllü, Erdoğan Özgür and Adil Denizli
Micromachines 2022, 13(9), 1441; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi13091441 - 01 Sep 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2597
Abstract
Aptamers are important materials for the specific determination of different disease-related biomarkers. Several methods have been enhanced to transform selected target molecule-specific aptamer bindings into measurable signals. A number of specific aptamer-based biosensors have been designed for potential applications in clinical diagnostics. Various [...] Read more.
Aptamers are important materials for the specific determination of different disease-related biomarkers. Several methods have been enhanced to transform selected target molecule-specific aptamer bindings into measurable signals. A number of specific aptamer-based biosensors have been designed for potential applications in clinical diagnostics. Various methods in combination with a wide variety of nano-scale materials have been employed to develop aptamer-based biosensors to further increase sensitivity and detection limit for related target molecules. In this critical review, we highlight the advantages of aptamers as biorecognition elements in biosensors for target biomolecules. In recent years, it has been demonstrated that electrode material plays an important role in obtaining quick, label-free, simple, stable, and sensitive detection in biological analysis using piezoelectric devices. For this reason, we review the recent progress in growth of aptamer-based QCM biosensors for medical diagnoses, including virus, bacteria, cell, protein, and disease biomarker detection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microsensors and Microsystems for the Human Body)
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23 pages, 2510 KiB  
Review
Advances in Cancer Diagnosis: Bio-Electrochemical and Biophysical Characterizations of Cancer Cells
by Kholoud K. Arafa, Alaa Ibrahim, Reem Mergawy, Ibrahim M. El-Sherbiny, Ferdinando Febbraio and Rabeay Y. A. Hassan
Micromachines 2022, 13(9), 1401; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi13091401 - 26 Aug 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2667
Abstract
Cancer is a worldwide leading cause of death, and it is projected that newly diagnosed cases globally will reach 27.5 million each year by 2040. Cancers (malignant tumors), unlike benign tumors are characterized by structural and functional dedifferentiation (anaplasia), breaching of the basement [...] Read more.
Cancer is a worldwide leading cause of death, and it is projected that newly diagnosed cases globally will reach 27.5 million each year by 2040. Cancers (malignant tumors), unlike benign tumors are characterized by structural and functional dedifferentiation (anaplasia), breaching of the basement membrane, spreading to adjacent tissues (invasiveness), and the capability to spread to distant sites (metastasis). In the cancer biology research field, understanding and characterizing cancer metastasis as well as features of cell death (apoptosis) is considered a technically challenging subject of study and clinically is very critical and necessary. Therefore, in addition to the cytochemical methods traditionally used, novel biophysical and bioelectrochemical techniques (e.g., cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy), atomic force microscopy, and electron microscopic methods are increasingly being deployed to better understand these processes. Implementing those methods at the preclinical level enables the rapid screening of new anticancer drugs with understanding of their central mechanism for cancer therapy. In this review, principles and basic concepts of new techniques suggested for metastasis, and apoptosis examinations for research purposes are introduced, along with examples of each technique. From our recommendations, the privilege of combining the bio-electrochemical and biosensing techniques with the conventional cytochemical methods either for research or for biomedical diagnosis should be emphasized. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microsensors and Microsystems for the Human Body)
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