New Student Work / Thesis / Projects
Info: "Type of work" is not fixed and can be individually varied. Apart from the topics below there are often more topics. Do not hesitate to ask!
Investigation of absorption and emission spectra of solutions
Bachelor Project or Bachelor Thesis
Description
Measure and analyze the absorption and transmittance of solutions when factors such as path length, fill height of the solution, concentration of the indicator dye changes.
Starting: immediately
Requirements: Interest in Optoelectronics, Interest in 3D design
Contact:Varuni Rathnayake
pH measurements using image processing methods
Bachelor Project or Bachelor Thesis
Description
Indicator dyes can be used to determine pH of a solution. A method has to be proposed and implemented by image processing methods to extract color information to identify color that corresponds to pH values.
Starting: immediately
Requirements: Microcontroller programming (Raspberry pi), knowledge on image processing
Contact: Varuni Rathnayake
Process development for anodic bonding at low temperatures
Bachelor Project
Description
Anodic bonding of glass wafers and silicon wafers is typically done at about 400C. A bonding process at <200C is to be developed using Lithium-containing glass or interlayers between the bonded wafers. The bonding experiments are carried out in the cleanroom. The bond quailty in therms of bond strenght, reliability is to be analysed.
Starting: immediately
Requirements: Interest in cleanroom fabrication and meaterial science
Contact: Henrik Nöbel
Characterization of organic polymer based mixed ionic-electronic semiconductor (PEDOT:PSS) treated at different range of temperature and additives
Bachelor Project
Description
Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) such as PEDOT:PSS plays a crucial transducer role in biosensing and switching applications. Therefore, the stability and repeatability of OMIECs becomes very vital. In their pristine form, the conductivity of such transducing materials is lower than required range. The purpose of this project work is to study the performance of PEDOT:PSS based on different solvent treatment, baking temperature and baking time, Deposition of PEDOT:PSS film on OECTs, CV, EIS and transfer characteristics, Spectro-electrochemical characterization
Starting: immediately
Requirements: Bachelor student of Electrical Engineering, electrochemistry, material science or similar, Interest in material development and characterization, Knowledge of data analysis software (Origin Pro, Python, MATLAB or similar), Knowledge of Overleaf/LaTeX software would be a plus.
Contact: Kapil Tagale
Design and realisation of a deterministic lateral displacement-based particle sorter
Master Project / Thesis
Description
Separating circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and fibroblast-associated tumour cells (CAFs) from other nucleated cells, such as white blood cells, is crucial for biological cancer research. Passive, label-free microfluidic approaches are particularly well-suited for size-based particle sorting, as CTCs and CAFs are significantly larger and less flexible than nucleated blood cells.
The aim of this master project/thesis is to design, develop, and characterize a microfluidic cell sorting device based on deterministic lateral displacement.
Starting: immediately
Requirements: Interest in microfluidics, BioMEMS, and COMSOL Multiphysics.
Contact: Sander van den Driesche
Realisation and characterisation of a synthetic lipid bilayer platform
Master Project
Description
Membrane proteins of biological cells play a crucial role in the survival of the cell or cell population. Patch-clamping is a widely used technique to investigate the current-flow through membrane-bound pores in response to an applied voltage. However, this technique is not suitable for investigating purified protein samples or small species like bacteria. In contrast, synthetic lipid bilayers, supported by a microfabricated aperture, are highly suitable. The membrane is accessible from both sides, allowing sample proteins to be fused into the lipid bilayer membrane (LBM).
The aim of this master project is to realise and characterise a synthetic lipid bilayer platform for the investigation of biological pore proteins. Electrophysiological measurements will be conducted to achieve this goal.
Starting: immediately
Requirements: Interest in microfluidics, BioMEMS, 3d-printing, and Electrophysiological measurements.
Contact: Sander van den Driesche
Hybrid CE‑OECT platform for selective separation and real‑time monitoring of ionic species in complex mixtures
Master Project
Description
Different ion species (e.g., Na⁺ and Ca2⁺) can be distinguished by the magnitude of the output current of Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). Because the electrolyte is in direct contact with the organic channel, OECTs are emerging as highly promising bio‑ and ion‑sensors. Their main advantage is a very high transconductance at a low operating voltage ( < 0.5 V).
At IMSAS we are exploring OECTs as next‑generation sensors for wearable, real‑time monitoring applications. In this project we will integrate OECTs with a microfluidic channel that performs ion separation by capillary electrophoresis (CE). After separation, the ion “clusters” that migrate through the microfluidic channel will be detected by the OECTs.
Since the ions move under the electric field generated by the applied voltages, the combined CE‑OECT platform enables both separation and detection of multiple ionic species from a mixture.
The aim of this master project is to design and test an on‑chip system that couples capillary electrophoresis with organic electrochemical transistors for the selective separation and real‑time detection of various ions in complex mixtures.
Starting: immediately
Requirements: Interest in microfluidics, electrochemistry, and 3d-printing.
Contact: Sander van den Driesche and Kapil Tagale