Hana BOUKHAROUBA is a third-year PhD student in the Microsystems and Nano Biofluidics Department at C2N. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Electronics, Electrical Energy and Automation, and a Master's degree in Sensors, Instrumentation and Measurements from Sorbonne University. During her second year of the Master’s program, she completed a work-study placement at the SOLEIL Synchrotron in the Surface Science Laboratory, where she worked with instruments such as STM, AFM, and interferometers, and contributed to various laboratory projects.
She then joined C2N to pursue a PhD focused on the development of an inductive and multi-frequency radiofrequency electromagnetic approach for the characterization of organic media, with a view toward designing a smart wound dressing. Her project aims to develop a new non-contact technique for characterizing skin wounds, enabling quantitative and continuous monitoring of the healing process. This characterization relies on the use of passive, planar, and flexible electromagnetic resonators that can be integrated into a medical dressing. These resonators allow non-invasive measurement of the skin’s complex dielectric properties via inductive coupling in the radiofrequency (RF) range, which are well-suited for monitoring the pathophysiological state of organic tissues.
The passive sensor operates as a high-sensitivity transmitter/receiver antenna in the 20 to 400 MHz RF range, remotely operated by an RF reader. Currently, Hana is working on developing a microfluidic circuit to be coupled with the electromagnetic sensor. This setup will be used to explore the sensor’s relevance for non-contact and continuous monitoring of a reconstructed human epidermis model in a culture environment.
In June 2024, Hana took part in the 18th edition of the IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications held in the Netherlands. This international symposium covers all aspects of interactions related to instrumentation and measurement, biomedical engineering, materials science, and chemical and biological measurements. Hana was awarded 3rd place in the "Best Student Paper Presentation Award" for her paper and presentation titled "Non-contact Monitoring of D-Glucose Concentration in Saline Solution Using a Passive Transmission Line-Based RF Resonator."
The paper presents results obtained using a prototype of the passive electromagnetic sensor she is developing, implemented here to monitor variations in glucose concentration in a saline solution mimicking the dielectric properties of blood.
Credit photo @C2N
