The ability to measure pressure and force is essential in biomedical applications such as minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and palpation for detecting cancer cysts. Here, we report a force sensor for measuring a shear and normal force by combining an arrayed piezoelectric sensors layer with a precut glass top plate connected by four stress concentrating legs. We designed and fabricated a thin film piezoelectric force sensor and proposed an enhanced sensing tool to be used for analyzing gentle touches without the external voltage source used in FET sensors. Both the linear sensor response from 3 kPa to 30 kPa and the exact signal responses from the moving direction illustrate the strong feasibility of the described thin film miniaturized piezoelectric force sensor.

The origin of the fluorescence of polymerized dopamine derivatives was first clarified and the fluorescent oligomeric dopamine (F-ODA) could detect Fe²⁺ ions with very high specificity.

An electrochemical capacitance immunosensor based on an interdigitated wave-shaped micro electrode array (IDWµE) for direct and label-free detection of C-reactive protein (CRP) was reported. A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of dithiobis (succinimidyl propionate) (DTSP) was used to modify the electrode array for antibody immobilization. The SAM functionalized electrode array was characterized morphologically by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The nature of gold-sulfur interactions on SAM-treated electrode array was probed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The covalent linking of anti-CRP-antibodies onto the SAM modified electrode array was characterized morphologically through AFM, and electrochemically through cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The application of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and human serum (HS) samples containing different concentrations of CRP in the electrode array caused changes in the electrode interfacial capacitance upon CRP binding. CRP concentrations in PBS and HS were determined quantitatively by measuring the change in capacitance (ΔC) through EIS. The electrode immobilized with anti-CRP-antibodies showed an increase in ΔC with the addition of CRP concentrations over a range of 0.01–10,000 ng mL⁻¹. The electrode showed detection limits of 0.025 ng mL⁻¹ and 0.23 ng mL⁻¹ (S/N = 3) in PBS and HS, respectively. The biosensor showed a good reproducibility (relative standard deviation (RSD), 1.70%), repeatability (RSD, 1.95%), and adequate selectivity in presence of interferents towards CRP detection. The sensor also exhibited a significant storage stability of 2 weeks at 4 °C in 1× PBS.