Philip Underwood

For my Final Year Project, I embarked on researching a combination of two fields which are of great interest for me; Medical Design and Designing for Developing Countries. I decided to innovate an existing medical product and make it more suitable for developing countries, by, firstly, reducing the complexity of the internal components, relieving the devices reliability of electronic calibration, therefore reducing the overall cost, and secondly by making the product self-sustaining through the use of super-capacitors and solar energy technology.

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The device works by loading in a blood sample which is then mixed with a fluorescent dye which colours the cells. The blood is then diluted with the use of a sheath fluid which is used to space the cells out within the fluid. The cells are then fed through a fluidic system into a Flow Chamber, the cells are then forced though, at a predetermined flow rate, in front of a Helium-Neon Laser which highlights the cells causing them to give off a shadow. These optical shadows are interpreted through the use photo-multipliers, and processed into eligible data which can be interpreted by a medical professional. Once the devices task is complete, a sterilising agent is passed through the entire fluidic system, purging the tubing of any potential residue which could cause miss readings.

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The final design is outlined in the images shown. The completed outcome theoretically could be manufactured for £10,000 compared to the £25,000-£250,000 that these devices are sold for by leading manufacturers.

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