The AppliSens pH+ Bioprocess Sensor in detail.
The AppliSens pH+ is built around a single design decision that defines everything else about its operational profile: a solid sleeve membrane. instead of the porous reference electrodes or open membrane types that dominate the design of classic pH probes. The sleeve membrane physically restricts contact between the culture medium and the reference electrode—eliminating most of the gradual failure modes that aging pH probes exhibit during long bioprocess runs: clogging of the reference electrode by cells and debris, contamination by media components, and the pH drift that operators learn to compensate for before eventually replacing the probe to escape it. With the pH+, the culture medium has less of an impact on the measurement, the reading remains stable for longer, and the sensor itself lasts substantially longer through the long-running cultivation campaigns that increasingly define bioprocess work—extended fed-batch phases, multi-week perfusions, and repeated SIP cycles. The pH range of 4–9 is bioprocess-optimized: deliberately narrower than industrial 0–14 probes, deliberately optimized for the range in which mammalian cell culture and microbial fermentation actually operate.
Experience and quality in every detail.
The pH+ is the bioprocess pH sensor in the AppliSens series—Applikon’s own sensor family, developed in parallel with the Applikon controller portfolio rather than acquired through partnerships. The practical implications are clear: The pH+ connects via native USB integration to Livit Flex, ez2-Control, my-Control, and in-Control , with the AppliSens driver built directly into the Applikon controller software. No external transmitter, no separate transmitter cabinet, no second software stack for learning. Sensor health, calibration history, and live values are all displayed on the same Applikon interface that powers the rest of the bioprocess.
Easy operation with professional process control.
In upstream bioprocessing, pH is not just a process monitoring parameter—it is an active variable that governs cell behavior. Viability depends on remaining within a narrow pH window for most cell lines; drifting out of this window during a fed-batch triggers cascades of apoptosis that no corrective action can fully compensate for. Productivity correlates directly with the tightness of pH control; the difference between a pH ±0.05 control loop and a pH ±0.15 control loop is reflected as percentage points in the titer. Cell stability over long cultivation campaigns depends on pH consistency; pH fluctuations that classical probes fail to detect early on account for a substantial proportion of mammalian batch failures. And downstream drug discovery depends on upstream pH control—protein folding, post-translational modifications, and degradation pathways all shift with pH history. The pH+ is designed so that none of these failure modes can be attributed to the pH probe as a limiting factor.
pH+ compared to the alternatives in the Resea-Biotec catalog.
The Resea Biotec sensor catalogue includes four pH measurement options across two technology families — classical electrochemical pH with AppliSens (Applikon-native) and smart digital pH with on-board electronics or sensor management. The right choice depends on three operational questions: whether native AppliSens integration is the priority (single-vendor calibration workflow, Applikon controller auto-recognition, consolidated service contract), whether smart-sensor data workflows matter (on-board calibration history, predictive replacement signalling, audit-trail-ready diagnostics), and whether the lab already runs a particular third-party sensor ecosystem (Hamilton Arc, Mettler ISM) that the new pH sensor should fit into.
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1
AppliSens pH+ — Classical electrochemical pH with solid pod membrane — AppliSens (Applikon) — Native Applikon integration with long-cultivation membrane durability and a maintenance profile tuned to extended campaigns.
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2
AppliSens Smart pH — Smart pH sensor with integrated electronics — AppliSens (Applikon) — Sensor-based data workflows in the AppliSens stack with on-board calibration history.
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3
Hamilton EasyFerm Plus Arc — pH measurement with Arc Intelligence — Hamilton (third-party provider) — Hamilton-Arc ecosystem labs and multi-vendor sensor environments.
