Flexible Printed Senor for Detection of Escherichia Coli in Drinking Water

Drinking water contamination is a major cause for multiple diseases and deaths in humans. Currently detection and characterization of drinkable water is expensive and time consuming due to culture formation. Here, we present a flexible sensor consist of an Inter-digitated electrodes (IDEs) on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate and it is compatible for integration through additive printing techniques. The sensor structure is simulated for electrical characterization in COMSOL Multiphysics. Further, by using LC formation, the resonating behavior is also analyzed in Ansys High Frequency Structure Simulation (HFSS) for RF characterization. The sensor detected the presence of bacteria in water as the capacitance and resistance of the sensor reduced by 5.2 pF and $363\ \mathrm{k} \Omega$, respectively, as compared to the values of pure water. While using HFSS, the sensor detected the bacterial presence by showing the resonance frequency response of 4.175 GHz and 4.075 GHz for pure and Escherichia Coli contaminated water, respectively.