IEEE Circuits and Systems UK & Ireland Chapter Event| Developments in Real-Time Wearable Airborne Particulate Matter Detection and Analysis
Exposure to air pollution consistently ranks among the leading global causes of illness and death, and the World Health Organisation estimates that nearly 99% of the global population live in environments that do not meet air quality standards.
An individual’s exposure to airborne pollutants can vary significantly with time of day and geographic location as a person moves about their daily lives. Thus, to accurately assess the health impacts of personal exposure, new sensory techniques are needed to enable real-time monitoring with high spatial and temporal resolution.
The most significant factor in air quality is exposure to aerosolized particulate matter (PM). Traditional PM monitoring relies on bulky and expensive instruments, such as mass spectrometers, or techniques requiring high power consumption or complex analysis procedures, such as incandescence and fluorescence, none of which are readily amenable to real-time operation in a portable/wearable monitoring platform capable of achieving high spatiotemporal resolution. To overcome the limitations of existing technologies, our team has introduced a microfluidic platform that utilizes the inertial capture of atmospheric PM into a liquid sample, enabling downstream detection and chemical composition analysis of PM using electrochemical methods within a flow cell. Our microfluidics approach enables miniaturisation, increased sensitivity, and the integration of multiple CMOS-compatible analysis techniques to facilitate personal PM exposure monitoring.
This presentation will address various challenges in developing a fully functional personal PM monitoring system, from the design of specialised electrochemical instrumentation to modern microfluidic fabrication techniques using 3D printing to enhance performance. Topics of focus will include a potentiostat circuit that expands the electrochemical potential window for modern CMOS processes with power supplies below 3V and an analysis of microfluidic fabrication options and their respective challenges when utilized to capture aerosol samples and analyse them electrochemically within an integrated platform.
Developments in Real-Time Wearable Airborne Particulate Matter Detection and Analysis by Derek Goderis of Michigan State University
Derek Goderis (S’20) received his BS from Michigan State University (MSU) in December 2021, received his MS from MSU in April 2024, and is currently a PhD candidate, all in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Mr. Goderis worked for Hella Electronics North America (now Forvia Hella) and Polaris Industries before starting his graduate training in January 2022 under the supervision of Dr Andrew Mason. His PhD research is focused on the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices for personal air-quality monitoring and assessment.
Mr. Goderis is a student member of the IEEE and a member of the Sensors Council. He also serves on the Graduate Studies Committee for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at MSU, and the College Hearing Board at MSU.
Developments in Real-Time Wearable Airborne Particulate Matter Detection and Analysis by Andrew Mason of Michigan State University
Andrew J. Mason (S’90–M’99–SM’06) received the BS in Physics from Western Kentucky University in 1991, the BS in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1992, and the MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1994 and 2000, respectively.
Since 2001 Dr Mason has been at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, where he is currently a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Neuroscience Program and the Environmental Science and Policy Program. His research explores technologies for augmented human awareness and biomedical applications, including microfabricated structures, mixed-signal circuits, embedded systems and machine learning algorithms.
Dr Mason is a Senior Member of the IEEE and serves on the Sensory Systems and the Biomedical Circuits and Systems Technical Committees of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Trans. Biomedical Circuits and Systems was co-General Chair of the 2011 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference. He is a recipient of the 2006 Michigan State University Teacher-Scholar Award and the 2010 Withrow Award for Teaching Excellence.