A lab-on-a-chip-based non-invasive optical sensor for measuring glucose in saliva

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC)-based non-invasive optical sensor for measuring glucose in saliva was fabricated. Existing glucose sensors utilizing blood require acquisition of a blood sample by pricking the finger, which is painful and inconvenient. To overcome these limitations, we propose a non-invasive glucose sensor with LOC, micro-electro-mechanical system and optical measurement technology. The proposed sensor for measuring glucose in saliva involves pretreatment, mixing, and measurement on a single tiny chip. Saliva containing glucose and glucose oxidase for glucose oxidation are injected through Inlets 1 and 2, respectively. Next, H₂O₂ is produced by the reaction between glucose and glucose oxidase in the pretreatment part. The saliva and generated H₂O₂ are mixed with a colorizing agent injected through Inlet 3 during the mixing part and the absorbance of the colorized mixture is measured in the measurement part. The absorbance of light increases as a function of glucose concentration at a wavelength of 630 nm. To measure the absorbance of the colorized saliva, a light-emitting diode with a wavelength of 630 nm and a photodiode were used during the measurement part. As a result, the measured output current of the photodiode decreased as glucose concentration in the saliva increased.