Mass-Fabrication Scheme of Highly Sensitive Wireless Electrodeless MEMS QCM Biosensor with Antennas on Inner Walls of Microchannel.

Abstract

Quartz-crystal-microbalance (QCM) biosensor is a typical label-free biosensor, and its sensitivity can be greatly improved by removing electrodes and wires that would be otherwise attached to the surfaces of the quartz resonator. The wireless-electrodeless QCM biosensor was then developed using a microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) process, although challenges remain in the sensitivity, the coupling efficiency, and the miniaturization (or mass production). In this study, we establish a MEMS process to obtain a large number of identical ultrasensitive and highly efficient sensor chips with dimensions of 6 mm square. The fundamental shear resonance frequency of the thinned AT-cut quartz resonator packaged in the microchannel exceeds 160 MHz, which is excited by antennas deposited on inner walls of the microchannel, significantly improving the electro-mechanical coupling efficiency in the wireless operation. The high sensitivity of the developed MEMS QCM biosensors is confirmed by the immunoglobulin G (IgG) detection using protein A and ZZ-tag displaying a bionanocapsule (ZZ-BNC), where we find that the ZZ-BNC can provide more effective binding sites and higher affinity to the target molecules, indicating a further enhancement in the sensitivity of the MEMS QCM biosensor. We then perform the label-free C-reactive protein (CRP) detection using the ZZ-BNC-functionalized MEMS QCM biosensor, which achieves a detection limit of 1 ng mL-1 or less even with direct detection.