Hybrid Integrated Silicon Microfluidic Platform for Fluorescence Based Biodetection

The desideratum to develop a fully integrated Lab-on-a-chip device capable of rapid specimen detection for high throughput in-situ biomedical diagnoses and Point-of-Care testing applications has called for the integration of some of the novel technologies such as the microfluidics, microphotonics, immunoproteomics and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS). In the present work, a silicon based microfluidic device has been developed for carrying out fluorescence based immunoassay. By hybrid attachment of the microfluidic device with a Spectrometer-on-chip, the feasibility of synthesizing an integrated Lab-on-a-chip type device for fluorescence based biosensing has been demonstrated. Biodetection using the microfluidic device has been carried out using antigen sheep IgG and Alexafluor-647 tagged antibody particles and the experimental results prove that silicon is a compatible material for the present application given the various advantages it offers such as cost-effectiveness, ease of bulk microfabrication, superior surface affinity to biomolecules, ease of disposability of the device etc., and is thus suitable for fabricating Lab-on-a-chip type devices.