Review of sensing technologies for measuring powder density variations during pharmaceutical solid dosage form manufacturing

Oral solid dosage forms, the most widely used pharmaceutical products, are typically manufactured through a series of processes that transform a blend of drug and excipient particles into a densified product with consistent quality attributes. While the densification of powder during processing is crucial and directly impacts the quality of the drug product, there is still scarcity of non-destructive and fast sensor systems that provide access to the powder density at critical process stages.

Highlights

• Review of sensors for powder density variation measurements during processing.

• Focus on major conventional pharmaceutical solid oral dosage form processing routes.

• Discussion on impact of variation in powder density on final product quality.

• Principles, instrumentation and applications of common/emerging technologies.

• Technology comparison: Data acquisition/processing, resolution, system integration.

This review discusses methods for monitoring density variations of particulate matter by describing their principles and presenting application examples. The techniques discussed range from common in-line methods such as near-infrared spectroscopy, acoustic emission and ultrasonic methods as well as techniques with potential to be more frequently applied in a pharmaceutical manufacturing line, i.e. terahertz spectroscopy and imaging, microwave technique, electrical tomography and X-ray based methods. This review also compares these techniques in terms of measurement and data processing time, resolution and its ability to be integrated in a process.

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Author links open overlay panelS. Stranzinger, D.Markl, J.G.Khinast, A.Paudel
TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry
Available online 9 December 2020, 116147
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2020.116147