Kudakwashe Kanyemba C19136060L

Trish Manyanye C19139584R

Douglas Makuyana C19138914G
Assignment two
Micro electro-mechanical systems
Biosensors can be defined as analytical devices which include a combination of biological detecting
elements like a sensor system and a transducer.

The short form of the biological sensor is known as a biosensor. In this sensor, a biological element is
maybe an enzyme, a nucleic acid otherwise an antibody. The bio-element communicates through
the analyte being checked & the biological reply can be changed into an electrical signal using the
transducer. Based on the application, biosensors are classified into different types like resonant
mirrors, immune, chemical canaries, optrodes, bio-computers, glucometers & biochips.

Main Components of a Biosensor

The block diagram of the biosensor includes three segments namely, sensor, transducer, and
associated electrons. In the first segment, the sensor is a responsive biological part, the second
segment is the detector part that changes the resulting signal from the contact of the analyte, and
for the results, it displays in an accessible way. The final section comprises an amplifier which is
known as a signal conditioning circuit, a display unit as well as the processor.

Working Principle of Biosensor

Usually, a specific enzyme or preferred biological material is deactivated by some of the usual
methods, and the deactivated biological material is in near contact with the transducer. The analyte
connects to the biological object to shape a clear analyte which in turn gives the electronic reaction
that can be calculated. In some examples, the analyte is changed to a device that may be connected
to the discharge of gas, heat, electron ions, or hydrogen ions. In this, the transducer can alter the
device linked convert it into electrical signals which can be changed and calculated.

For diabetes patients, checking glucose levels within the blood is essential. For that, a glucometer is
used as a biosensor to measure the glucose concentration within the human blood.Generally, a
glucometer includes a strip for testing.This strip collects the blood sample and checks the glucose
level within the blood. This strip includes a trigger as well as a reference-type electrode. Once a
blood sample is poured on the strip, then a chemical reaction takes place to generate an electrical
current that is directly proportional to the glucose concentration. The processor used in the
glucometer is Cortex-M3 otherwise Cortex-M4 through the flow of current toward filter, amplifier,
voltage converter, a display unit.

Most glucometers today use an electrochemical method. Test strips contain a capillary that sucks up
a reproducible amount of blood. The glucose in the blood reacts with an enzyme electrode
containing glucose oxidase (or dehydrogenase). The enzyme is reoxidized with an excess of a
mediator reagent, such as a ferricyanide ion, a ferrocene derivative or osmium bipyridyl complex.
The mediator in turn is reoxidized by reaction at the electrode, which generates an electric current.
The total charge passing through the electrode is proportional to the amount of glucose in the blood
that has reacted with the enzyme. The coulometric method is a technique where the total amount of
charge generated by the glucose oxidation reaction is measured over a period of time. The
amperometric method is used by some meters and measures the electric current generated at a
specific point in time by the glucose reaction. This is analogous to throwing a ball and using the
speed at which it is travelling at a point in time to estimate how hard it was thrown. The coulometric
method can allow for variable test times, whereas the test time on a meter using the amperometric
method is always fixed. Both methods give an estimation of the concentration of glucose in the
initial blood sample.

2. A piezo inkjet printer is a type of inkjet printer that uses printer heads containing special crystals
to which an electric current is applied. This causes the crystals to expand, forcing ink onto a
substrate. When the current is removed, the crystal shrinks again, drawing up ink into the printer
head. Piezo inkjet printers use the Drop-On-Demand (DOD) printing technique, which means the
printer carries the ink in a chamber located in the printhead. This printing technique is also used by
thermal inkjet printers.

In order to apply ink on a surface, piezo inkjet printers use the so-called piezoelectric effect. This
effect consists in creating a voltage on the surface of a piezoelectric material (e.g. piezoelectric
crystals) by deforming it. As a result, the printing nozzle is momentarily deformed, exerting a high
pressure on the ink and making the printhead eject an ink droplet. The polarity of the voltage is then
reversed so that the ink stops flowing from the nozzle.

There are two modes in which the piezo inkjet printers apply ink: the bend and the shear mode. In
the first case, the ink is drawn and forced out of the chamber via the nozzle by a two-way expansion.
The second mode achieves the same result, only that pressure waves are used instead, consuming
less energy.

3. The working principle of RF MEMS in:

a) RF communication;

Radio Frequency Microelectromechanical Systems (RF MEMS) are MEMS based Radio Frequency
passives components that offer various advantages over conventional microwave devices including
improved isolation, lower power dissipation, and reduced cost, size, and weight. There have been a
number of companies that have tried to launch RF MEMS products over the years without much
success. However, the RF MEMS device which has found some commercial success is switches. We
now starting to see some successful implementations of RF MEMS based switches.

In modern communication system, the wireless terminal uses a single antenna to transmit and
receive wireless signals. However, since the transmitter and receiver share the same antenna, the
self-interference between the transmitter and receiver needs to be canceled, in order to protect the
sensitive LNA on the receiver module. Traditionally, this is solved by employing “half-duplexing”
scheme, meaning that the wireless terminals transmit and receive signals at either different time or
different frequency bands. On the other hand, another communication scheme called “full-
duplexing” works by transmitting and receiving signals at the same time and over the same
frequency band, therefore doubles the spectral efficiency directly at the physical layer. However,
full-duplexing has been considered unpractical due to the requirement of bulky ferrite circulators.
Circulator is a non-reciprocal three-port device that can transmit the signal at one specific direction
(eg. Port 1–> Port 2 –> Port 3) while isolate the other. Therefore, full-duplexing can be enabled by
connecting the transmitter, antenna and receiver to port 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Traditionally,
circulators are based on ferrite materials and strong magnetic bias, therefore are bulky in
dimensions and incompatible with CMOS technology. In this project, we focus on building a new
generation of circulator that eliminates the requirement of strong magnetic bias. High-Q MEMS
resonators are spatiotemporal modulated to break the time-reversal symmetry and reciprocity.
Thanks to the high Q factor of MEMS resonators, ultra-low modulation frequency is guaranteed,
which is the major advantage of using MEMS technology to build magnetic-free circulators. As a
result, for the first time, a magnetic-free, time-varying circulator with ultra-low modulation
frequency and power consumption is demonstrated, showing low IL, strong IX, broad BW and high
linearity, all at the same time, thus addressing the challenges of magnet-free integrated full-duplex
components with high performance.
B) Global positioning system
For us to transmit any kind of signal we must have an antenna and rf mems improved the already
exixting antennas.Polarization and radiation pattern reconfigurability, and frequency tunability, are
usually achieved by incorporation of III-V semiconductor components, such as SPST switches or
varactor diodes. However, these components can be readily replaced by RF MEMS switches and
varactors in order to take advantage of the low insertion loss and high Q factor offered by RF MEMS
technology. In addition, RF MEMS components can be integrated monolithically on low-loss
dielectric substrates, such as borosilicate glass, fused silica or LCP, whereas III-V compound semi-
insulating and passivated silicon substrates are generally lossier and have a higher dielectric
constant. A low loss tangent and low dielectric constant are of importance for the efficiency and the
bandwidth of the antenna.The prior art includes an RF MEMS frequency tunable fractal antenna for
the 0.1–6 GHz frequency range,[18] and the actual integration of RF MEMS switches on a self-similar
Sierpinski gasket antenna to increase its number of resonant frequencies, extending its range to 8
GHz, 14 GHz and 25 GHz, an RF MEMS radiation pattern reconfigurable spiral antenna for 6 and 10
GHz, an RF MEMS radiation pattern reconfigurable spiral antenna for the 6–7 GHz frequency band
based on packaged Radant MEMS SPST-RMSW100 switches, an RF MEMS multiband Sierpinski
fractal antenna, again with integrated RF MEMS switches, functioning at different bands from 2.4 to
18 GHz, and a 2-bit Ka-band RF MEMS frequency tunable slot antenna.