A golden micro-trap for anesthetic depth monitoring using human breath samples

This paper reports a golden micro-trap chip for anesthetic depth monitoring (ADM). The chip selectively captures the anesthetic compound propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol) by filtering out the other species found in human breath. The 12mm×12mm×1mm silicon-glass chip has an array of high aspect ratio parabolic reflectors inside its 7mm×7mm×0.24mm cavity and is coated with an electroplated gold layer. This device shows subject independent results with the propofol peak area variation within 8%. This microfabricated chip has the potential to accurately quantify the amount of propofol present in human breath sample without incorporating the gas chromatography (GC) column into the testing setup, resulting in faster analysis and reduced cost and complexity.