Master's Thesis Defense

Avik Banerjee 

(Advisor: Prof. Carr)
 

ADVANCING NANOGAP TECHNOLOGY MINIATURIZATION AND
AUTOMATION FOR SINGLE-MOLECULE DETECTION BEYOND EARTH

Wednesday, April 16 at 

3:00 p.m. 

Weber Space Science & Technology Building 304 Conf Room
 

Abstract 

A central objective of planetary exploration is the search for signs of life or prebiotic chemistry beyond Earth, through the detection of biomolecular signatures on a range of potentially habitable environments such as icy moons, planets, and small bodies like asteroids. Building on previous iterations, this thesis presents advances to the Electronic Life-Detection Instrument for Enceladus/Europa (ELIE), designed to detect amino acids, RNA, DNA, and other charged polymers indicative of life through nanogap-based sensing. The latest iteration, ELIE 3.0, features downsized subsystems, enhanced capabilities, and a transition to integrated hardware. Key optimizations include consolidating a multi-amplifier design into a single Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) to reduce noise and system complexity. This required a detailed analysis of electrical noise and bias sources, leading to targeted mitigation strategies that improved measurement fidelity across various current ranges and sampling rates. In parallel, ELIE's software evolved from a basic command-line interface to a full-featured graphical user interface (GUI) with real-time logging, multithreading, and structured HDF5 data recording. The GUI provides intuitive control over system diagnostics and data acquisition through responsive, modular dialog boxes, leveraging techniques such as multithreading and asynchronous communication between worker threads. The GUI also features automated routines for gap formation, though automated sample delivery and electrophoresis integration remain future tasks. Pending future integration, a robust manual procedure was developed and validated, demonstrating successful preliminary detection of amino acids deposited onto the nanogap chip. Detection performance was evaluated using adaptive thresholding to account for baseline current fluctuations, alongside statistical methods designed to isolate signal events reliably. Lastly, heat-sterilization tests were conducted to assess the nanogap chip’s resilience for future missions. These developments advance ELIE beyond early TRL 2, laying the groundwork for maturation toward higher readiness levels.
Committee
• Prof. Christopher Carr – School of Aerospace Engineering (advisor)
• Prof. Masatoshi (Toshi) Hirabayashi – School of Aerospace Engineering
• Prof. Brian Gunter – School of Aerospace Engineering