In this paper we review the advancement of passive and integrated microwave biosensors. The interaction of microwave with biological material is discussed in this paper. Passive microwave biosensors are microwave structures, which are fabricated on a substrate and are used for sensing biological materials. On the other hand, integrated biosensors are microwave structures fabricated in standard semiconductor technology platform (CMOS or BiCMOS). The CMOS or BiCMOS sensor technology offers a more compact sensing approach which has the potential in the future for point of care testing systems. Various applications of the passive and the integrated sensors have been discussed in this review paper.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a life-threatening lung disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Although the majority of patients with objective COPD go undiagnosed until the late stages of their disease, recent studies suggest that the regular screening of sputum viscosity could provide important information on the disease detection. Since the viscosity of sputum is mainly defined by its mucin–protein and water contents, dielectric biosensors can be used for detection of viscosity variations by screening changes in sputum’s contents. Therefore, the objective of this work was to develop a portable dielectric biosensor for rapid detection of viscosity changes and to evaluate its clinical performance in characterizing viscosity differences of saliva samples collected from COPD patients and Healthy Control (HC). For this purpose, a portable dielectric biosensor, capable of providing real-time measurements, was developed. The sensor performance for dielectric characterization of mediums with high water content, such as saliva, was evaluated using isopropanol–water mixtures. Subsequently, saliva samples, collected from COPD patients and HC, were investigated for clinical assessments. The radio frequency biosensor provided high repeatability of 1.1% throughout experiments. High repeatability, ease of cleaning, low-cost, and portability of the biosensor made it a suitable technology for point-of-care applications.

The viscosity variation of sputum is a common symptom of the progression of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Since the hydration of the sputum defines its viscosity level, dielectric sensors could be used for the characterization of sputum samples collected from patients for early diagnosis of COPD. In this work, a CMOS-based dielectric sensor for the real-time monitoring of sputum viscosity was designed and fabricated. A proper packaging for the ESD-protection and short-circuit prevention of the sensor was developed. The performance evaluation results show that the radio frequency sensor is capable of measuring dielectric constant of biofluids with an accuracy of 4.17%. Integration of this sensor into a portable system will result in a hand-held device capable of measuring viscosity of sputum samples of COPD-patients for diagnostic purposes.

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Arteriosclerosis and associated cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of mortality. Improved methods for vascular plaque detection allow early diagnose and better therapeutic options. Present diagnostic tools require intense technical expenditure and diminish value of modern screening methods. Our group developed an microwave sensor for on-site detection of plaque formation in arterial vessels. The sensor is an oscillator working around 27 GHz which is coupled to a microstrip stub line. The final flexible polyimid interposer has a length of 38 cm, a width of 1.2 mm and a thickness of 200 μm. Because of its minimal size the interposer completed a catheter with a diameter of 8F ready for further clinical use in cardiology and heart surgery.