Miniaturized electronic tongue fabricated on ceramic support

Aim of project
The aim of the project is to construct a miniaturized electronic tongue based on potentiometric sensor array employing planar miniaturized ion-selective electrodes fabricated in LTCC technology. The LTCC technology will enable manufacturing a few dozen transducers on ceramic support. Each of the transducers (planar Au or Ag electrodes), fabricated with the screen-printing technology, will be placed on a ceramic cavity of custom-designed shape, providing appropriate positioning of the ion-selective membranes, high mechanical durability and long-term stability. The development of a complete electrochemical cell in the sensor array of electronic tongue will demand also the design of a planar reference electrode fabricated on ceramic support. The developed electronic tongue will be applied for the classifi cation and quality control of liquid samples, e.g. foods.

Expected results
The result of the project will be a miniaturized electronic tongue suitable for fast classifi cation of investigated samples e.g. foodstuffs. The developed device will be an inexpensive, portable analytical system of small dimensions. That feature will be helpful to minimize the amount of reagents used for analysis thanks to small sample volume. It is worth noticing that the developed device will be the fi rst integrated electronic tongue system fabricated in LTCC technology. The equipment will be tested in the task of classifi cation and assessment of chosen groups of foodstuff s (milk products, fruit beverages and juices, mineral waters). In the future it could be applied to the verifi cation of the product origin or freshness, and to the quality control in the food industry (e.g. in the ageing process).