Master Thesis: Electronic Nose for respiratory disease diagnosis and monitoring

At imec, ULP Sensors

Scope of the Project
Development and testing of a miniaturized detector for diagnosis and monitoring of respiratory diseases by breath analysis.

Description of the Project
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, and is associated with variable airways obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness and symptoms of chronic cough, dyspnea, wheeze, chest tightness and sputum production. Significant challenges exist in correct diagnosis, especially in infants under 6 years of age, when pulmonary function testing is impossible. The disease affects people of all ages, and its spectrum ranges from mild intermittent to severely disabling when uncontrolled. Besides diagnosing asthma correctly, daily monitoring of the disease is equally important. Asthma exacerbations, in both infants and adults, pose a great burden on health related quality of life as well as on costs of care. Early detection and characterization of exacerbations may limit the clinical burden by targeting treatment at an earlier stage.

Breath analysis is considered a highly suitable approach to non-invasive diagnosis and monitoring of asthma in both infants and adults, especially if achievable in portable systems. However, significant challenges exist in identifying and separating specific volatiles, “odors”, in complex mixtures like breath. Common approach is to use multiple sensing elements with varying chemical coatings simultaneously, essentially forming a response fingerprint for each odor mixture. For this task, Holst Centre has recently developed vibrating micro-scale beams coated with polymer films where the resonance frequency of the beams change in response to the presence of certain vapors. The novel approach allows for high levels of integration and low power consumption, essentially allowing for the development of an “electronic nose”.

Among the remaining challenges to realizing the electronic nose is the correct identification and realization of application specific coating chemistries upon individual sensing elements. Within this context, the project tasks will include identification of suitable coatings, preparation and optimization of the coatings, and testing of the sensors with different mixtures of vapors in controlled environments for identification of optimal coatings. The final goal of the project is to demonstrate real-life application of breath analysis using a miniaturized e-nose.

The position is part of a dynamic interdisciplinary team of researchers whose efforts range from device design, fabrication, chemical functionalization, integrated read-out, performance characterization and application case testing.

Requirements
The applicant is expected to have the following qualifications 

• Bachelor, Master-student in biology, chemistry, medical or technical sciences
• Experience in polymer chemistry and/or breath analysis considered a plus
• Motivated for laboratory research into sensor functionalization and testing of both artificial and real breath samples
• Good verbal and written communication skills in English

For all inquiries, please contact:

Ms Sandra Maas, Management Assistant Human Resources.
Telephone number: +31 (0)40 40 20 500.

Application form