Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The purpose of this grant is to enable research and development of a low power wireless, battery-less, system-on-chip, gamma/X-ray radiation dosimeter in a commercial CMOS technology, specifically intended for blood bag irradiation. The application of a commercially available CMOS process in the radiation dose monitoring of blood bags during irradiation has not been previously explored. Recently, much attention has been focused on irradiating blood bags prior to transfusion to avoid transmitting potential diseases from donors to patients and also to avoid receiver's potential resistance to the blood. The irradiation of blood bags is done via gamma- or X-ray radiation sources. A gamma radiation machine consists of a radiation secure shielding which contains the radioactive source element Cesium 137 with a half life of 30.2 years. Within the machine, 3 or 4 blood bags can be placed at a time for irradiation for a period of around 3 to 5 minutes. The X-ray based blood irradiation machine consists of an X-ray tube and other mechanical and electronics devices and can also irradiate 3 to 5 blood bags at the same time. According to the government and health monitoring bodies, a cumulative absorbed radiation dose of between 30 to 50 Gray has to be given to blood bags to consider them safe for transfusion. This mandate obligates the blood bag irradiation manufacturers such as Best Theratronics and Best Medical Canada to monitor the performance of the machines to ensure proper operation. The most important way to verify the correct dose to the blood bags is via the use of indicators placed on each blood bag. The current indicator sold by the company on blood bags utilizes color change on a paper-like material which turns from white to a shade of blue and the intensity changes based on the amount of radiation. This method of observing total dose relies on operator's judgement. The research team at Carleton University proposes to develop a novel wireless battery-less RFID tag solution that monitors and through wireless communication reports the cumulative radiation dose live to a receiver which allows the operator to decide whether the bags have been irradiated satisfactorily or not.