Ceramic substrates ideal blood sample carrier for diagnostics

Boosting testing capacity for verifying the COVID-19 virus in blood samples is still one of the major issues to further contain the spread of the virus and to return step-by-step back to normal life, be it to business, school or leisure activities. Therefore many pharmaceutical and med-tech companies are developing new test methods, laboratories are investing into incremental capacity and equipment manufacturers are developing new automated test procedures and machines.

One critical part of this diagnostic equipment is the carrier, which holds and transports the individual blood probes into the equipment. At best, the diagnostic apparatus can analyse many probes at the same time. Therefore, the carrier is a key element to automize the modular diagnostic of proteins and DNA.

For this purpose technical ceramic is an ideal material due to its bio-compatibility. In addition, material properties like chemical resistance and thermal conductivity play a main role, next to very high bending strength, which allows to produce very stiff substrates as the basis for the carrier. Finally and to grade up the core substrate into a carrier, state-of-the-art laser technology is being used to manufacture highly precision blind holes into the substrate which then can carry the individual blood probes.

The ongoing miniaturization and higher levels of precision and quality drive the next generation of ceramic components for med-tech and electronic applications. Latest manufacturing technologies with laser makes it possible to answer the high demands. For more than 40 years, CeramTec is pioneering the manufacturing of substrates made from different ceramic materials with laser machining. This allows to produce a wide range of contour geometries, drill hole combinations, through holes and break lines without the need for time-consuming and costly tooling. The latest generation of lasers perform productions steps for scribing, cutting, drilling and structuring of ceramic substrates to meet extremely tight tolerances at high quality.

Do you have any questions or need more information? Then please contact the CeramTec Corporate Communications department at pr@ceramtec.de.