Amorphous silicon photosensors integrated in microfluidic structures as a technological demonstrator of a “true” Lab-on-Chip system (original) (raw)
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In this paper we have integrated a two-channel microfluidic network, fabricated by molding two polydimethilsiloxane channels, with a balanced photodiode constituted by two series-connected amorphous silicon/silicon carbide n-i-p stacked junctions, deposited by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition on a glass substrate. The structure takes advantage of the differential current measurement to reveal very small variations of photocurrent in a large background current signal suitable for biomedical application. The microfluidic network has been fabricated with dimensions of 3 cm  2 mm  150 lm (L  W  H) for each channel. The experiments have been carried out measuring the differential current in several conditions. All the experiments have been executed under a large background light intensity to reproduce realistic operating conditions in biomedical applications. We have found that the proposed device is able to detect the presence or absence of water flow in the channel and the presence of fluorescent marker. In particular, under identical channel conditions the differential current is at least a factor 60 lower that the current flowing in each diode.
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Herein we present a point-of-care device for immunodiagnostic tests. This device integrates, on the same glass substrate, a PDMS microfluidic network, an array of amorphous silicon photosensors for onchip optical detection and a dedicated surface chemistry based on polymer brushes. As proof of principle, a peptide named VEA was immobilized on PHEMA polymer brushes. The survey relies on the formation, inside the microchannels, of a sandwich between primary antibody against VEA and a secondary antibody labeled with HRP, which catalyzes the reaction between luminol and hydrogen peroxide, yielding a chemiluminescent signal detected by the array of photosensors deposited underneath.
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A lab-on-chip system, integrating an all-glass microfluidics and on-chip optical detection, was developed and tested. The microfluidic network is etched in a glass substrate, which is then sealed with a glass cover by direct bonding. Thin film amorphous silicon photosensors have been fabricated on the sealed microfluidic substrate preventing the contamination of the micro-channels. The microfluidic network is then made accessible by opening inlets and outlets just prior to the use, ensuring the sterility of the device. The entire fabrication process relies on conventional photolithographic microfabrication techniques and is suitable for low-cost mass production of the device. The lab-on-chip system has been tested by implementing a chemiluminescent biochemical reaction. The inner channel walls of the microfluidic network are chemically functionalized with a layer of polymer brushes and horseradish peroxidase is immobilized into the coated channel. The results demonstrate the success...
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A discrete a-Si:H photodiode is first fabricated on a glass substrate and used to detect fluorescent dye standards using conventional confocal microscopy. In this format, the limit of detection for fluorescein flowing in a 50-µm deep channel is 680 pM (S/N ) 3). A hybrid integrated detection system consisting of a half-ball lens, a ZnS/YF 3 multilayer optical interference filter with a pinhole, and an annular a-Si:H photodiode is also developed that allows the laser excitation to pass up through the central aperture in the detector. Using this integrated detection device, the limit of detection for fluorescein is 17 nM, and DNA fragment sizing and chiral analysis of glutamic acid are successfully performed. The a-Si:H detector exhibits high sensitivity at the emission wavelengths of commonly used fluorescent dyes and is readily microfabricated and integrated at low cost making it ideal for portable microfluidic bioanalyzers and emerging large scale integrated microfluidic technologies.
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Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2012
Label-free biosensing with silicon nanophotonic microring resonator sensors has proven to be an excellent sensing technique for achieving high-throughput and high sensitivity, comparing favorably with other labeled and label-free sensing techniques. However, as in any biosensing platform, silicon nanophotonic microring resonator sensors require a fluidic component which allows the continuous delivery of the sample to the sensor surface. This component is typically based on microchannels in PDMS or other materials which add cost and complexity to the system. The use of microdroplets in a digital microfluidic system, instead of continuous flows, is one of the recent trends in the field, where micro-to picoliter-sized droplets are generated, transported, mixed and split, thereby creating miniaturized reaction chambers which can be controlled individually in time and space. This avoids cross-talk between samples or reagents and allows fluid plugs to be manipulated on reconfigurable paths, which cannot be achieved using the more established and more complex technology of microfluidic channels where droplets are controlled in series. It has great potential for high-throughput liquid handling, while avoiding on-chip cross contamination. We present the integration of two miniaturized technologies: label-free silicon nanophotonic microring resonator sensors and digital microfluidics, providing an alternative to the typical microfluidic system based on microchannels. The performance of this combined system is demonstrated by performing proof-of-principle measurements of glucose, sodium chloride and ethanol concentrations. These results show that multiplexed real-time detection and analysis, great flexibility, and portability make the combination of these technologies an ideal platform for easy and fast use in any laboratory.
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Integrated optical microfluidic lab-on-a-chip
Photonics North 2008, 2008
Bio-security for health monitoring and diagnosis are the needs of the hour, for rapid detection of biological and chemical species. This calls for a necessity to develop a cost effective miniaturized and portable biosensor device for in-situ biomedical applications and Point-of-Care Testing (POCT). While portability of the biosensor is required for in-situ medical detections, miniaturization is essential for handling smaller sample volumes and high throughput. Thus, the above mentioned concerns cannot be addressed unless a fully integrated biosensor system is developed. In this work, an integrated opto microfluidic based Lab-on-a-chip device is proposed for carrying out fluorescence based biodetection. The input and output fibers were integrated with the microfluidic channel so as to make a robust setup. Fluorescence detection was carried out using Alexafluor 647 tagged antibody particles and the output was measured with a Spectrometer-on-Chip, integrated with the device. The experimental results prove that the proposed device is highly suitable for Lab-on-a-Chip applications.
32nd European Solid-State Device Research Conference, 2002
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