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Embedded chips offer alternative to paper trail

Researchers from Cornell University, USA have built a microscopic device using silicon that can detect viruses in minuscule amounts.

Researchers from Cornell University, USA have built a microscopic device using silicon that can detect viruses in minuscule amounts. Measuring just a few micrometres, the tiny contraption could prove vital in the fight against disease. It can sniff out viruses in previously undetectable quantities of as little as half a dozen.

The micro-electromechanical device features a series of tiny silicon paddles (6-10microns long, half a micron wide and just 150nm thick) mounted on a piezoelectric crystal.

The oscillation of the crystal is aligned with the paddles' resonant frequency, causing the paddles to vibrate. The paddles are coated with specially produced antibodies that attach to a particular virus.

When a certain number of viruses become trapped within the paddles, the vibration of the paddles is altered. It is therefore possible to detect the presence of viruses by monitoring the paddles' resonating frequency. This can be done by shining a laser on the paddles and observing changes in reflected light - a process known as optical interferometry.

The team behind the technology - led by Rob Ilic of the Cornell NanoScale Facility, Cornell professor of applied and engineering physics Harold Craighead and biomedical engineering graduate Yanou Yang - say that it could eventually be used to detect a single virus.

They also believe that the technology could one day identify even smaller particles, such as proteins or strands of DNA.

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