Inkjet printing is an ideal technology for delivering a small quantity of fluid in a precise fashion, with minimum ink wastage. Biosensors tend to contain relatively more costly ingredients, such as enzymes and antibodies, in precise, optimised proportions. As such, inkjet printing is an ideal technology for the manufacturing of biosensors. This paper reports a study of the feasibility of using inkjet to print biosensor strips for use in medical diagnostic devices. In particular, the paper will describe properties of the biosensor strips prepared, in relation to the “ink” formulations and to the sequence of printing. The effects of each “ink” ingredient on the performance of the resulting sensor strip will also be detailed. For a successful manufacturing process and a commercially viable product, the inks prepared needed to be able to print efficiently and reproducibly. The sensor strips prepared needed to be capable of producing a linear response to the analyte in a wide range of concentration (i.e. large dynamic range). The performance of the printed sensor strips needed to be stable over a considerable length of time under various storage conditions. All these parameters were characterised and optimised.
L. Lin, W. He, "Inkjet printing of biosensors for medical diagnostic devices" in Proc. IS&T Digital Fabrication Conf., 2006, pp 98 - 98, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2006.22.2.art00032_3