2.2 Virus Detection

Amid the accelerating spread of viral diseases throughout the world, the rapid detection of pathogens is of essential importance. Viruses can be transmitted very quickly via contacts in public transportation or at large social events. Therefore, a rapid virus test system for such crowded locations is highly desirable. The plasmon-assisted microscopy of nano-objects (PAMONO) sensor is one such analytical instrument. The sensor required the development of software and optomechanical parts to detect viruses in complex biological liquids. While the focus lies on viral particles, other nanoparticles can also be analyzed by employing a similar principle. The latter issue vastly expands the potential application field of the PAMONO sensor. The developed methods are tailored to the spatiotemporal characteristics of the underlying sensor system, making use of the adaptivity of machine learning approaches. As a result, 80nm to 300nm particles can be detected in signals with different types of imaging artifacts and different resolutions, reaching accuracies of over 80% with respect to the expected particle counts of test samples. For mobile use as a rapid test system, resource-saving and real-time capability are of similar importance to make the device accessible in as many application areas as possible. Multi-objective optimization in terms of detection quality and energy consumption was applied to demonstrate that the usage as a mobile system is feasible.