Diabetics may soon be able to get freedom from painful pinpricks as engineers at Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits & Systems IMS have come up with a handy bio-sensor that can gauge glucose levels using sweat or tears.

Patients suffering from Type-1 of diabetes need to continuously monitor their glucose levels because their bodies can not produce the insulin required to break down blood glucose. For this, they have to frequently prick their body to get a drop of blood to conduct the test.

The pricking procedure is really an agony for pain-sensitive patients. It may also cause other problems, such as inflammation of the skin.

But the new, tiny bio-sensor allows users to monitor their glucose levels without any need of pricking of their bodies. It can gauge the glucose level of the patient using tissue fluids from his/her body, such as sweat or tears.

Tom Zimmermann, manager of business unit at IMS said, “It even has an integrated analog digital converter that converts the electrochemical signals into digital data.”

The chip in the new bio-sensor measures just 0.5mm by 2.0mm. The results can then be radioed to a mobile device.

Such bio-electric sensors are already available in the market, but they are so big, so imprecise and so power-thirsty that most people like to avoid them.