High Frequency Impedance Spectroscopy of Water-Filled Single Well in a Flat-Bottom Plate

Abstract

This paper proposes the concept of high frequency impedance spectroscopy applied to a single water-filled well in a flat-bottom cell culture plate. A ring-circular electrode pair is attached at the well bottom to generate the electric field. Geometrical parameters including the radius of the circular electrode and the gap between the center and the surrounding electrode are studied to investigate the sensitivity of the sensing platform. In addition, the thickness of the well bottom was also varied with the values of 1.24 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.1 mm. The frequency responses including reflection coefficient, conductance and susceptance are simulated and compared for all case studies. The result shows that the electrode pair with narrower gap and larger radius of the center electrode provides more sensitive frequency responses in the presence of water in the well. Well base thickness also has a direct influence on the frequency response. A thin well base leads to high sensitivity of the impedance spectroscopy. The proposed design can be applied for monitoring of biological cells cultivated in cell culture plates in the future.