Simulation Based Study of Piezoelectric MEMS Biosensors for Pathogen Detection

With the world suffering through a pandemic, rapid detection and testing of pathogens has become the need of the hour. The rapid diagnosis of pathogens is of utter importance to control the severity of the disease caused by the pathogenic agent and to have timely clinical intervention in order to stop the spread of the disease. Hence there is a need for development of biosensors which are faster, reliable, cost efficient, highly selective and sensitive, reducing assay time and manual labour. In this paper various piezoelectric MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) biosensor models were simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics. The basic premise on which the pathogen identification is based is on the interaction between antigen and antibody. The antigen-antibody binding leads to a higher mass and hence a force on the surface of the sensor. This exertion of force on the piezoelectric sensor leads to generation of voltage which could be measured to point the presence or absence of the pathogen. Three different pathogens under consideration were Leprosy, Typhoid and Covid-19. Also, array of sensors was simulated which would help in detection of multiple pathogens at the same time. Difference in the output voltages generated could be used for detection of different pathogens simultaneously. It was observed that maximum output voltage was generated when PolyVinyliDeneFlouride (PVDF) was used as the piezoelectric material for the biosensor models. From the results it was observed that design 2 (T-shaped) produced the maximum amount of output voltage. From the output voltages obtained in arrays of sensors (designs 6 and 7) detection of multiple pathogens is possible due to the difference in the voltages produced by different pathogens.