A New Label-Free and Contactless Bio-Tomographic Imaging with Miniaturized Capacitively-Coupled Spectroscopy Measurements

Sensors (Basel). 2020 Jun 11;20(11):3327. doi: 10.3390/s20113327.

Abstract

A new bio-imaging method has been developed by introducing an experimental verification of capacitively coupled resistivity imaging in a small scale. This paper focuses on the 2D circular array imaging sensor as well as a 3D planar array imaging sensor with spectroscopic measurements in a wide range from low frequency to radiofrequency. Both these two setups are well suited for standard containers used in cell and culture biological studies, allowing for fully non-invasive testing. This is true as the capacitive based imaging sensor can extract dielectric spectroscopic images from the sample without direct contact with the medium. The paper shows the concept by deriving a wide range of spectroscopic information from biological test samples. We drive both spectra of electrical conductivity and the change rate of electrical conductivity with frequency as a piece of fundamentally important information. The high-frequency excitation allows the interrogation of critical properties that arise from the cell nucleus.

Keywords: capacitively-coupled electrical resistivity tomography; cell and cell tissue imaging; miniaturized tomography.

MeSH terms

  • Dielectric Spectroscopy
  • Electric Conductivity
  • Tomography*
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed*