Introduction

In order to diagnose the dangerous condition of fetal oxygen deficiency during birth, scalp electrodes are routinely used to monitor the heart’s activity, which displays electrically detectable changes should oxygen deficiency occur. A significant technological improvement would be to complement these relative measurements with an absolute measure related to oxygenation of the brain; an integrated lactate sensor in the scalp electrode device would provide this opportunity.

The aim

This project is about describing a scenario for the realization of the integration of a lactate sensor in an existing type of scalp electrodes.

Description of work

You will work together as a team of two students with supervision from the group of Micro- and Nanosystems at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers University of Technology. You will have contact with the company Neoventa who has developed the targeted scalp electrodes (see figure). Your work will be focused on finding a design and a fabrication scheme that realizes a lactate sensing device in a cost effective and mass-producible manner. The starting point for the sensor design is first and foremost the requirement that it needs to be integrated with a particular kind of scalp electrode, and also that you begin designing the lactate sensor using microfabrication technology and carbon nanofiber materials, inspired by published reports in this field.

Learning outcome

At the end of this project you will be up-dated on state-of-the-art methods for lactate sensing and be well informed on the particular requirements for commercial scalp electrodes. You will have acquired substantial experience concerning industrial implementation of microtechnology.