High-Throughput and High-Intensive Biosensor Microarray Fabrication by Selective Dewetting on a Wettability Controlled Substrate

Abstract

In a microarray biosensor, the surface characteristic for reducing background nonspecific binding is a critical aspect for achieving the high sensitivity and accurate detection. In this paper, we proposed a new high-intensity and reduced nonspecific binding microarray fabrication method with a selective dewetting process on a mixed self-assembled monolayer (SAM), consisting of methyl-terminated and methoxy-[poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)]-terminated silanes. The combination of hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties of the mixed SAM background layer provided the hydrophobicity that allowed the selective dewetting of the protein solution at specific versus nonspecific regions and reduced the nonspecific binding owing to hydrated PEG chains in the mixed SAM. The wiping process was applied for obtaining high throughput and reducing protein usage. Finally, the background non-specific binding was significantly reduced by 78% with a selective dewetting method compared with the standard method using a cover slip. Furthermore, the peak intensity was increased by 20% and the protein usage was reduced versus the standard method.