Technology | Detection principle

The detection principle in the BIOSENS® detection system is based on piezoelectric quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technology using monoclonal antibody as the specific element. In the QCM –technology the resonant frequency is measured from an AT-cut quartz crystal (Figure 1).

Each QCM electrode is mounted in a “cartridge”,called BioCell® (Figure 2.). The electrodes are surface grafted with a propriety immuno-complex surface, which is optimized to give a sensitive output of a frequency change. This frequency change is caused by the displacement of antibodies from the surface by the presence of the target substance.

The resonant frequency changes as a linear function of the mass of material deposited on the surface of the electrode. This technique of mass and frequency change enables the detection of narcotic drugs and explosives at the picogram (pg) level with a high degree of specificity.