Development of Oxygen Sensor by Integrating the Low Cost Printed Circuit Board Technology and Solid Electrolyte Membrane

This paper presents the development of a miniaturized Clark type oxygen sensor integrated with an in vitro cell culturing platform for the purpose of instantaneous monitoring of cellular oxygen consumption by the solution or gas flowing through the cultured cells on the platform. The cell culturing platform’s prototype, which contains an inlet and outlet pipes and a cell culturing chamber, is being manufactured by The Eden250™ 3D Printing System using the Objet biocompatible material MED610™. The presented oxygen sensor configuration consists of two identical series of working, reference and counter microelectrodes, placed before and after the cell culturing chamber. It was manufactured by combining low cost printed circuit board technology and laser micro machining techniques, and was coated with a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, Nafion (perfluorosulfunic acid membrane, Du Pont Company) to ensure robustness and good electrical conductivity. The sensor can function easily without humidification or any special condition and has a long shelf life. The sensitivity of the oxygen sensor, having less than 3 seconds response time is tested in different oxygen concentration in gas state and was found to be compatible with measurements from a Portable Multi-Gas Analyzer provided by Super Systems Europe.