Portable medical diagnosis instrument

US9824870B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA · US

Inventors

• Tore Straume · Tracy, US
• David Loftus · Palo Alto, US
• Jing Ze LI · San Jose, US
• Cristina E. Davis · Davis, US
• Anup K. Singh · Media, US
• Matthew A. Coleman · Livermore, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 29, 2015
• Grant date: Nov 21, 2017
• Expiry date: Apr 29, 2035

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01N2001/4038
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A system that integrates several technologies into a single, portable medical diagnostic apparatus for analyzing a sample body fluid (liquid and/or gas): (1) a mechanism to capture airborne microdroplets and to separate the body fluid into a first fluid component (primarily gas) and a second fluid component (primarily liquid); (2) a volatilizer to convert a portion of the second fluid component into a third fluid component that is primarily a gas; (3) a functionalized nanostructure (NS) array configured to receive, identify, and estimate concentration of at least one constituent in the first and/or third fluid components; (4) a miniaturized differential mobility spectrometer (DMS) module; and (5) a biomarker sensor, to detect volatile and non-volatile molecules in a sample fluid, which may contain one or more components of blood, breath, perspiration, saliva, and urine.