Improved biological agent sensing integrated circuit (BASIC)

Abstract

In this paper, a previously proposed biological sensor system is improved to be more compatible with integrated circuit (IC) technology. The re-designed sensor head detects electromagnetic changes caused by the presence of ferromagnetic tags attached to target pathological and bioterrorism agents (zoonotic microorganisms) both in liquid or gaseous specimens. The system circuits then transform the measured magnetic effects into digital data used to count the number and type of organisms present. The advanced one piece wiring inductor in the conical shape acts as the sensor head. Most important is that the wire geometry achieves ultra-uniformity of the magnetic field magnitude, which ensures a high level of the system accuracy since the randomly located particles will produce nearly the same magnetic flux change over the surface of the sample container. A 3D model is used to simulate organisms tagged with iron nanoparticles being sensed in the system, and the results indicate a maximum difference in effect of 7% when a single biological is moved to various locations across the sensing container surface.