Film bulk acoustic biosensor for detection of trace pesticide residues in agricultural products

Abstract

A highly sensitive, rapid and convenient biosensor based on film bulk acoustic resonator has been developed for detection of pesticide residues in agricultural products. When the pesticide molecules are bound to the immobilised antibodies on the resonator sensing surface, the resonant frequency is obviously reduced because of additional mass. Trace pesticide in the solutions was detected through real-time monitoring of the resonant frequency during antigen-antibody reactions on the resonator surface. Using the proposed biosensor, realised is a convenient and rapid detection process (less than 1 min) and a remarkable low detection limit (ppb level) for the pesticide. On the basis of the sensing performances, the film bulk acoustic resonator shows promising applications for food safety guarantees.Introduction: Food safety has received more and more attention worldwide. Now, a number of portable biosensors based on various transduction mechanisms, including quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs) [1], enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) [2], surface plasmon resonances [3], electrochemical sensors [4] and microcantilevers [5], have been used in routine detection of food security. However, these devices cannot be configured easily for rapid, simple and low-cost detection because of their large sizes, complex operations or sophisticated optical equipments.Over the past five years, many attempts to use film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) for sensing applications have been made with remarkable results, including gas sensing [6], ultraviolet light sensing [7] and biological detection [8]. The FBARs make use of microelectromechanical systems technology, thereby enabling the integration of the sensors with their electronic circuits and the microfluidic devices into a single chip. Furthermore, as a universal mass-sensitive platform, typical FBARs work in gigahertz range and offer a sensitivity increase of more than three orders of magnitude over the classic mass-sensitive QCMs [9].

Detection of cardiac biomarkers in serum using a micro-electromechanical film electroacoustic resonator

“…These differences could be accepted considering the energy absorption, increased acoustic path in the electrodes and supporting layer as well as the deviation of elastic constants due to sputtering. Here, the series resonant frequency f s , parallel resonant frequency f p , and Q-factors were derived by the following expressions [41]:…”

Active area optimisation of film bulk acoustic resonator for improving performance parameters

“…In actual FBAR devices, owing to the discontinuous edges and boundaries, these excited spurious modes are able to induce new lateral modes. These transverse modes cause aggravating and unwanted ripples in the pass band of the filter and they also can diminish the quality factor because of energy conversion to these spurious modes [1–3 ].…”

Shear Mode Bulk Acoustic Resonator Based on Inclined c-Axis AlN Film for Monitoring of Human Hemostatic Parameters

“…However, the typical QCM has the size of about 1 cm 2 , the frequency of 5–20 MHz and the gram-levels base mass because of the bulk structure, which results in a large detection limit, thick substrate and the difficulty to integrate with the electronics. During the last few years, film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR), a promising micro-electromechanical bulk acoustic resonator, is popular for low-cost, label-free and highly sensitive detection of gas [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ] and biochemical species [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. By using micron-thick piezoelectric ZnO or AlN thin film, FBAR brings a very high resonant frequency from sub-GHz to 10 GHz and a low detection limit down to the monomolecular level.…”