Comparative Evaluation of a New Sensor for Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide
Nanoparticles in a Molecular Communication Setting
Abstract
Testbeds are required to assess concepts and devices in the context of
molecular communication. These allow the observation of real-life
phenomena in a controlled environment and therefore present the basis of
future work. A testbed using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles
(SPIONs) as information carriers was constructed with regard to this
context and requires a sensitive receiver for the detection of SPIONs.
This paper focusses on the comparison between a newly presented device
(inductance sensor), a previously constructed SPION sensor (resonance
bridge), and a commercial susceptometer as reference. The new inductance
sensor is intended to improve on a low sensitivity achieved with the
previous device and restrictions with respect to sample rate and
measurement aperture encountered with the susceptometer. The
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for each device is assessed at a variety of
SPION concentrations. Furthermore, the sensors bit error rates (BER) for
a random bit sequence are determined.
The results show the device based on an inductance sensor to be the most
promising for further investigation as values both for BER and SNR
exceed those of the resonance bridge while providing a su?ciently high
sample rate. On average the SNR of the new device is 13 dB higher while
the BER for the worst transmission scenario is 9% lower. The commercial
susceptometer, although returning the highest SNR, lacks adaptability
for the given use case.