Electrode Manufacturing Techniques

Electrode Manufacturing Techniques

Electrode manufacturing for diabetic test strips employs two primary methods: Thick Film (Screen Printing) and Thin Film (Laser Ablation).

Screen Printing

• Screen printing utilizes carbon and silver inks.
• It presses these inks through mesh screens, making it cost-effective and scalable.
• However, it suffers from microscopic surface roughness and lower resolution (approx. 100 µm).
• Surface roughness introduces signal variability.

Thin Film/Laser Ablation

• This method involves sputtering noble metals (Gold, Palladium) onto substrates.
• Lasers etch patterns onto these substrates, yielding superior conductivity and atomic-level surface flatness.
• It enables high precision, multi-analyte sensing, and sub-microliter sample volumes.
• However, it comes at a higher capital cost.

Reagent Deposition and Assembly

• Reagent Deposition is critical to both methods.
• The industry is shifting from broad coating to precise Inkjet Printing, conserving expensive enzymes.
• Inkjet Printing ensures accurate deposition.
• Assembly concludes with the lamination of Hydrophilic Spacers, defining the capillary channel volume.
• This process ensures the strip requires only a tiny blood drop (0.3–0.6 µm).