Development of Intranasal Sensor for Lung Cancer Detection

In recent years, the number of deaths from lung cancer has been increasing year by year. Chest X-ray examination and chest CT examination are employes as main lung cancer examination methods. However, these inspection methods cannot be inspected unless it is a hospital with well-equipped facilities and also there is a problem in detection at an early stage. Depending on the type of lung cancer, the progressing speed differ, so early detection is necessary. Therefore, focusing on the fact that acetone as biomarker, which is one of the exhalation components of human beings, increases in lung cancer patients. Towards the detection acetone in breath, sensor is constructed on a PET substrate, using sputter deposited ZnO as sensing material. However, there is a problem that the sensitivity of the sensor to detect acetone in exhaled breath is insufficient. Therefore, in this research, for the purpose of increasing the sensitivity of the sensor, the best deposition time and morphology for ZnO thin film creation is investigated. Finally, using our custom made sensing chamber various concentrations of acetone was injected and investigated its sensing capability. Various sensing parameters like sensitivity, rate of response, response/recovery time was analysed in detail. Multiple sensors were fabricated in a single PET substrate and folded to fix into the nasal area for in situ detection. Various aspects like intranasal size, sensor stability were also considered for further improvement of sensor.