Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli detection using the design of a biosensor

The food industry and clinical analysis, among other sectors, require the development of techniques and devices that detect pathogens, while the development of implantable devices needs biocompatible materials with low degradation in biological environment to increase the lifetime of the device. Throughout this work, hydrogenated amorphous silicon-carbon alloy is proposed, obtained, characterized and incorporated into the development of a proposed interdigitated microelectrode array (PIMA) to capture the bacteria of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (E. coli, ETEC). a-SixC1-x:H is obtained by the technique of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using methane and silane as precursor gases under high hydrogen dilution and low power density in order to improve its biocompatibility. Functionally the PIMA is a transducer based on electrical impedance, namely the capture of E. coli bacteria causes changes in the electrical properties of the medium between and on the microelectrodes of the array, which are associated with changes in electrical impedance. The simulations were made with the purpose of knowing the operation that the PIMA would have under operating conditions (with bacterial environment) and of analyzing the design aspects that could affect or increase the sensitivity of the array.