The POLYSENS group focuses on the design, realization and evaluation of sensing devices and systems for application in a wide range of diverse domains and in particular a) monitoring of humidity and VOCs in air b) quantitative determination of harmful substances in food and c) quantitative determination of critical for the human health biomarkers.

The sensors and systems that are developed to address these needs, are based on Si chip transducers that are personalized for each individual application domain. The two sensing platforms that are explored are a) InterDigitated Electrodes (IDEs) in the micro and nano scale configured as Capacitive sensors for gas sensing applications and b) Interferometers for the application in the food safety and human health domains with emphasis at the Point-of-Need usage.

By employing carefully designed and implemented, by mainstream microelectronic processes, IDE arrays the fast and quantitative determination of the levels of humidity and various VOCs (acetone, propanol, ethanol, ethyl-acetate, etc) has been achieved both in lab and in real settings. The particular sensing platform has been integrated with all necessary read-out electronics in a low-power and small form factor wireless node for the remote monitoring of humidity and certain VOCs.

On the other hand, for the determination of harmful species in food and of critical biomarkers related to human health, a sensing platform based on White Light Reflectance Spectroscopy has been developed. By using the developed sensing chips and readers, a) a wide range of pesticides, mycotoxins and allergens has been quantitively determined in various food matrices and b) the biomarkers set that is associated by clinical doctors with sepsis, is determined in a short time aiming at Point-of-Need implementation.