Designing Microwave Sensors for Glucose Concentration Detection in Aqueous and Biological Solutions: Towards Non-invasive Glucose Sensing (Springer Theses)

This book presents a comprehensive study covering the design and application of microwave sensors for glucose concentration detection, with a special focus on glucose concentration tracking in watery and biological solutions. This book is based on the idea that changes in the glucose concentration provoke variations in the dielectric permittivity of the medium. Sensors whose electrical response is sensitive to the dielectric permittivity of the surrounding media should be able to perform as glucose concentration trackers. At first, this book offers an in-depth study of the dielectric permittivity of water–glucose solutions at concentrations relevant for diabetes purposes; in turn, it presents guidelines for designing suitable microwave resonators, which are then tested in both water–glucose solutions and multi-component human blood plasma solutions for their detection ability and sensitivities. Finally, a portable version is developed and tested on a large number of individuals in a real clinical scenario. All in all, the book reports on a comprehensive study on glucose monitoring devices based on microwave sensors. It covers in depth the theoretical background, provides extensive design guidelines to maximize sensitivity, and validates a portable device for applications in clinical settings. Supervisors’ Foreword Foreword Parts of this thesis have been published in the following articles. Journals Conferences Funding Acknowledgements Contents Acronyms Glossary of Symbols 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Motivation 1.3 Objectives and Contributions 1.4 Thesis Structure 1.5 Framework of the Thesis 1.6 Publications References 2 State of the Art 2.1 Dielectric Dispersion Characterization 2.1.1 Dielectric Relaxations and Resonances 2.1.2 Dielectric Characterization Methods 2.2 Microwave Resonators: Fundamentals 2.3 Application to Diabetes 2.3.1 Diabetes Mellitus and Its Complications 2.3.2 Glycemia Measurement Systems 2.3.3 Continuous Glycemia Measurement 2.3.4 Approaches to Non-invasive Glycemia Measurements 2.3.5 Microwave Sensors for Non-invasive Glycemia Measurement References 3 Dielectric Characterization of Water–Glucose Solutions 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Materials and Methods 3.3 Measurements 3.4 Results 3.5 Discussion 3.6 Conclusions References 4 Glucose Concentration Detection in Aqueous Solutions with Microwave Sensors 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Materials and Methods 4.3 Measurements 4.4 Results 4.5 Discussion 4.6 Conclusions References 5 Glucose Concentration Detection in Biological Solutions with Microwave Sensors 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Materials and Methods 5.3 Measurements 5.4 Results 5.5 Discussion 5.6 Conclusions References 6 Microwave Resonator for NIBGM: Proof of Concept 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Materials and Methods 6.3 Measurements 6.4 Results 6.5 Discussion 6.6 Conclusions References 7 Microwave Sensors for Glucose Detection: Open Lines 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Simplification of the Electronic System 7.3 Sensitivity 7.4 Selectivity 7.5 Discussion 7.6 Conclusions References 8 Conclusions 8.1 Summary and Conclusions 8.2 Future Scope References Appendix A Fitting the Measured Raw Data to a Quadratic Function to Obtain fr, S21max and BW Appendix B Calculation of the Instrumental Error in the Unloaded Quality Factor About the Author