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Advances in Miniaturized Sensors

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Intelligent Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 7397

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesco Lopresti

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Guest Editor

Bio and Tissue Engineering Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: microfluidic; tissue regeneration; tissue engineering; biomaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Bernardo Patella

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Guest Editor

Applied Physical Chemistry Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: nanowires; nanostructures; electrochemical sensors; nanostructured materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, sensors are widely used for many different applications, for example, in the fields of safety, medicine and telemedicine, and the control of industrial processes and product quality in the environmental field for monitoring emissions.

Compared to conventional analysis techniques, the great advantages of sensors are their low cost and fast response times, which allow them to be used for in situ and real-time analyses without the need for sophisticated equipment or specialized personnel.

For these reasons, the design and development of miniaturized sensors have taken a center stage for researchers in recent decades owing to the wide range of sensor applications, such as health care, disease diagnosis, and drug delivery. Micro- and nanofabrication technologies may be utilized to reduce both the size and the cost of sensors while improving their selectivity, sensitivity, linearity, response time, reproducibility, and stability.

Therefore, this Special Issue aims to gather original research and review articles on recent advances, technologies, solutions, applications, and new challenges in the field of miniaturized sensor systems.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

Electrochemical sensors;
Optical sensors;
Gravimetric sensors;
Thermal sensors;
Electronic sensors;
Acoustic sensors;
Sensors for on-chip analysis;
Wearable sensors;
Flexible sensors;
Sustainable sensors;
Micro/nanostructured sensing materials.

Dr. Francesco Lopresti
Dr. Bernardo Patella
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. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 9658 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Miniaturization and Model-Integration of the Optical Measurement System for Temperature-Sensitive Paint Investigations

by Jonathan Lemarechal, Benjamin Daniel Dimond, Hans Peter Barth, Michael Hilfer and Christian Klein

Sensors 2023, 23(16), 7075; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23167075 - 10 Aug 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 726

Abstract

The temperature-sensitive paint (TSP) method, an optical measurement technique, is used for qualitative skin friction visualizations in a wide variety of aerodynamic applications. One such application is the visualization of the laminar–turbulent boundary-layer transition. Optical access to the surface of interest is mandatory for the measurement system, which consists of scientific cameras and LEDs. But the optical access to the area of interest is often impeded by the available windows of the wind tunnel and the wind tunnel model itself, reducing the field of view and the spatial resolution. In some cases, it is of interest to increase the flexibility of the installation of the optical measurement system by reducing its physical dimensions and placing the installation inside the plenum. The DLR Swept flat PlatE Cross-flow TRAnsition (SPECTRA-A) configuration was selected to investigate the influence of two-dimensional steps on the cross-flow-induced boundary layer transition by means of TSP, as part of the EU project Clean Sky 2. The SPECTRA-A configuration consists of two main elements: a flat plate and a displacement body mounted within a very close distance of each other, creating a narrow gap between the two elements. The surface of interest is the area on the flat plate facing the displacement body. The narrow gap limits the utilization of an external camera setup due to poor optical access. A new optical setup consisting of four miniature CMOS machine-vision cameras and five miniature high-power LEDs was integrated into the displacement body. The characteristics of the camera system were analyzed in laboratory tests, establishing that the miniature CMOS machine-vision cameras are suitable for qualitative TSP skin friction visualizations. This was confirmed by successfully measuring the laminar–turbulent boundary-layer transition on the SPECTRA-A configuration. The integrated TSP system is capable of resolving even small variations of the transition location caused by changing the amplitude of the stationary cross-flow instability. The quality of the TSP visualization with the integrated optical system allows for the measurement of the transition location and the wavelength of the stationary cross-flow instability. Overall, a cost-effective TSP visualization system with small space requirements was developed and tested for future applications in wind tunnel models, model support, or side walls of wind tunnels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Miniaturized Sensors)

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9 pages, 3219 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Design of a Narrow Band Filter Based on a Photonic Crystal Cavity for CO₂ Sensing Application

by Reyhaneh Jannesari, Thomas Grille, Gerald Stocker and Bernhard Jakoby

Sensors 2023, 23(10), 4958; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23104958 - 22 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1304

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of a miniaturized filter based on a triangular lattice of holes in a photonic crystal (PhC) slab. The plane wave expansion method (PWE) and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) techniques were utilized to analyze the dispersion and transmission spectrum, as well as the quality factor and free spectral range (FSR) of the filter. A 3D simulation has demonstrated that for the designed filter, an FSR of more than 550 nm and a quality factor of 873 can be attained by adiabatically coupling light from a slab waveguide into a PhC waveguide. This work designs a filter structure that is implemented into the waveguide and is suitable for a fully integrated sensor. The small size of the device provides a strong potential for the realization of large arrays of independent filters on a single chip. The fully integrated character of this filter has further advantages such as reducing power loss in coupling light from sources to filters and also from filters to waveguides. The ease of fabrication is another benefit of completely integrating the filter. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Miniaturized Sensors)

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18 pages, 5211 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Differential Confocal Sensor for Simultaneous Position and Slope Acquisitions Based on a Zero-Crossing Prediction Algorithm

by Tingyu Wang, Zhiyi Wang, Yongqiang Yang, Xiaotao Mi, Yunzan Ti and Jianli Wang

Sensors 2023, 23(3), 1453; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23031453 - 28 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1390

Abstract

A new sensor type is proposed to accurately detect the surface profiles of three-dimensional (3D) free-form surfaces. This sensor is based on the single-exposure, zero-crossing method and is used to measure position and angle simultaneously. First, the field intensity distribution in the posterior focal plane of the confocal microscope’s objective was modeled accurately. Second, because the camera needs to trigger acquisition when the surface (to be measured) reaches the focal position of the sensor, a zero-crossing prediction method based on a sliding window was proposed. Third, a fast, spatially convergent, peak-extraction algorithm was proposed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of peak extraction. This scheme reduces system installation and adjustment difficulties, and the single-exposure, zero-crossing method achieves high-speed, real-time image acquisitions. The experimental results indicate that the average error of the zero-crossing prediction system was 17.63 nm, the average error of the tilt degree measurement was 0.011° in the range of 0–8°, and the prediction error of the tilt direction measurement was 0.089° in the range of 0–360°. The sensor can measure the slope and can be potentially used for 3D surface precision detection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Miniaturized Sensors)

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19 pages, 5805 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Green and Integrated Wearable Electrochemical Sensor for Chloride Detection in Sweat

by Francesco Lopresti, Bernardo Patella, Vito Divita, Claudio Zanca, Luigi Botta, Norbert Radacsi, Alan O’Riordan, Giuseppe Aiello, Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas, Rosalinda Inguanta and Vincenzo La Carrubba

Sensors 2022, 22(21), 8223; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22218223 - 27 Oct 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1840

Abstract

Wearable sensors for sweat biomarkers can provide facile analyte capability and monitoring for several diseases. In this work, a green wearable sensor for sweat absorption and chloride sensing is presented. In order to produce a sustainable device, polylactic acid (PLA) was used for both the substrate and the sweat absorption pad fabrication. The sensor material for chloride detection consisted of silver-based reference, working, and counter electrodes obtained from upcycled compact discs. The PLA substrates were prepared by thermal bonding of PLA sheets obtained via a flat die extruder, prototyped in single functional layers via CO₂ laser cutting, and bonded via hot-press. The effect of cold plasma treatment on the transparency and bonding strength of PLA sheets was investigated. The PLA membrane, to act as a sweat absorption pad, was directly deposited onto the membrane holder layer by means of an electrolyte-assisted electrospinning technique. The membrane adhesion capacity was investigated by indentation tests in both dry and wet modes. The integrated device made of PLA and silver-based electrodes was used to quantify chloride ions. The calibration tests revealed that the proposed sensor platform could quantify chloride ions in a sensitive and reproducible way. The chloride ions were also quantified in a real sweat sample collected from a healthy volunteer. Therefore, we demonstrated the feasibility of a green and integrated sweat sensor that can be applied directly on human skin to quantify chloride ions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Miniaturized Sensors)

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Review

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16 pages, 6456 KiB

Open AccessReview

Review of Atom Chips for Absolute Gravity Sensors

by Dezhao Li, Wenfeng He, Shengnan Shi, Bin Wu, Yuhua Xiao, Qiang Lin and Long Li

Sensors 2023, 23(11), 5089; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23115089 - 26 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1688

Abstract

As a powerful tool in scientific research and industrial technologies, the cold atom absolute gravity sensor (CAGS) based on cold atom interferometry has been proven to be the most promising new generation high-precision absolute gravity sensor. However, large size, heavy weight, and high–power consumption are still the main restriction factors of CAGS being applied for practical applications on mobile platforms. Combined with cold atom chips, it is possible to drastically reduce the complexity, weight, and size of CAGS. In this review, we started from the basic theory of atom chips to chart a clear development path to related technologies. Several related technologies including micro-magnetic traps, micro magneto–optical traps, material selection, fabrication, and packaging methods have been discussed. This review gives an overview of the current developments in a variety of cold atom chips, and some actual CAGS systems based on atom chips are also discussed. We summarize by listing some of the challenges and possible directions for further development in this area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Miniaturized Sensors)

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