US researchers develop alcohol monitoring chip

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However, the new chip is small enough to be implanted in the body just beneath the surface of the skin and is powered wirelessly by a wearable device, such as a smartwatch or patch, according to the new study, presented at the 2018 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC) which runs from April 8 to 11 in San Diego.

“The ultimate goal of this work is to develop a routine, unobtrusive alcohol and drug monitoring device for patients in substance abuse treatment programs,” Drew Hall, an electrical engineering professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering who led the project, was quoted as saying in a news release. The biosensor chip contains a sensor that is coated with alcohol oxidase, an enzyme that selectively interacts with alcohol to generate a byproduct that can be electrochemically detected. It measures roughly one cubic millimeter in size and can be injected under the skin in interstitial fluid, which surrounds the body’s cells, according to the researchers. The chip consumes 970 nanowatts total, which is roughly one million times less power than a smartphone consumes when making a phone call.

US researchers develop alcohol monitoring chip

What you need to know:

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