Investigation on a Inkjet printed sensor for ammonia detection in liquid media

This paper deals with the development of a low-cost biosensor for the timely detection of phenylalanine levels in patients affected by Phenylketonuria. The proposed approach exploits an indirect measurement of phenylalanine by detecting the concentration of Ammonia resulting from an enzymatic reaction of the analyte. A capacitive sensing approach for the detection of Ammonia is adopted, which is based on the influence of Ammonia on the dielectric permittivity of an Yttria-stabilized Zirconium Oxide layer, deposited over an inkjet printed capacitor with an interdigitated electrodes geometry. An UV/ozone treatment of the sensitive oxide layer is performed with the aim of improving the sensor efficiency. The experimental results of measurement surveys performed on both non-treated and UV/ozone treated device samples are reported here.