CE Chips Research Articles

Fracture mechanism of metal electrode integrated on a chip and fabrication of a poly(ethylene terephthalate) electrophoresis microchip

Thermal bonding is an important technique to fabricate polymer electrophoresis microchip. However, the metal electrodes deposited on polymer substrate can readily fracture during the thermal bonding. In this paper, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was exploited to fabricate the electrophoresis microchip with an integrated gold electrode for amperometric detection. The fracture of the gold electrode was studied through FEA (finite element analysis) simulations, the potentially risk positions on the electrode were shown. The calculation results were tested by bonding experiments and were proven to be consistent with the experiments. Besides, an optimal bonding temperature for PET chip was also presented based on FEA simulations and bonding experiments. Considering the low surface properties of PET, oxygen plasma-assisted thermal bonding technique was used to enhance bonding. Upon treated for 150 s, the PET substrates could be thermally bonded at 62 °C without electrode fracture. The fabricated PET chips were demonstrated for detection of standard glucose solution. Satisfactory reproducibility was achieved, and the RSD values of peak height and migration time of the PET CE chips were 0.51% and 2.17%, respectively.

CE chips fabricated by injection molding and polyethylene/thermoplastic elastomer film packaging methods

This study presents a new packaging method using a polyethylene/thermoplastic elastomer (PE/TPE) film to seal an injection-molded CE chip made of either poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or polycarbonate (PC) materials. The packaging is performed at atmospheric pressure and at room temperature, which is a fast, easy, and reliable bonding method to form a sealed CE chip for chemical analysis and biomedical applications. The fabrication of PMMA and PC microfluidic channels is accomplished by using an injection-molding process, which could be mass-produced for commercial applications. In addition to microfluidic CE channels, 3-D reservoirs for storing biosamples, and CE buffers are also formed during this injection-molding process. With this approach, a commercial CE chip can be of low cost and disposable. Finally, the functionality of the mass-produced CE chip is demonstrated through its successful separation of phiX174 DNA/HaeIII markers. Experimental data show that the S/N for the CE chips using the PE/TPE film has a value of 5.34, when utilizing DNA markers with a concentration of 2 ng/microL and a CE buffer of 2% hydroxypropyl-methylcellulose (HPMC) in Tris-borate-EDTA (TBE) with 1% YO-PRO-1 fluorescent dye. Thus, the detection limit of the developed chips is improved. Lastly, the developed CE chips are used for the separation and detection of PCR products. A mixture of an amplified antibiotic gene for Streptococcus pneumoniae and phiX174 DNA/HaeIII markers was successfully separated and detected by using the proposed CE chips. Experimental data show that these DNA samples were separated within 2 min. The study proposed a promising method for the development of mass-produced CE chips.

Fabrication of PMMA Microchip of Capillary Electrophoresis by Optimized UV-LIGA Process

Design and fabrication of microfluidic devices on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) substrates for electrochemical analysis applications using improved UV-LIGA process are described. The micro-channel structures are transferred from Nickel mould into the plastic plates by hot embossing method. During the mould fabrication, the exposure process is optimized for the large ratio of exposed area to unexposed area of negative photo-resist (SU-8), then non-planar electroforming technique is used for the large line space of the SU8 photoresist mold. Microelectrodes for electrochemical detection are fabricated on other blank PMMA plates through lift-off process. Then these substrates with microchannels are bonded to PMMA plates with microelectrodes by thermal bonding method based on surface modification. In this study, the PMMA microchips of capillary electrophoresis for electrochemical detection (CE-ECD Chips) have been demonstrated by electrophoretic separation of L-ascorbic and uric acid. The results indicate that the fabrication of CE chips by this improved UV-LIGA process has potential of mass production with low cost.

On the surface modification of microchannels for microcapillary electrophoresis chips

This paper presents systematic investigation of the microchannel surface properties in microCE chips. Three popular materials for microCE chips, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), quartz, and glass, are used. The zeta potentials of these microchannels are calculated by measuring the EOF velocity to evaluate the surface properties after surface modification. The hydrophobic PDMS is usually plasma-treated for microCE applications. In this study, a new method using a high-throughput atmospheric plasma generator is adopted to treat the PDMS surface under atmospheric conditions. In this approach, the cost and time for surface treatment can be significantly reduced compared with the conventional vacuum plasma generator method. Experimental results indicate that new functional groups could be formed on the PDMS surface after treatment, resulting in a change in the surface property. The time-dependent surface property of the plasma-treated PDMS is then measured in terms of the zeta potential. Results show that the surface property will reach a stable condition after 1 h of plasma treatment. For glass CE chips, two new methods for changing the microchannel surface properties are developed. Instead of using complicated and time-consuming chemical silanization procedures for CE channel surface modification, two simple and reliable methods utilizing organic-based spin-on-glass and water-soluble acrylic resin are reported. The proposed method provides a fast batch process for controlling the surface properties of glass-based CE channels. The proposed methods are evaluated using PhiX-174 DNA maker separation. The experimental data show that the surface property is modified and separation efficiency greatly improved. In addition, the long-term stability of both coatings is verified in this study. The methods proposed in this study show potential as an excellent solution for glass-based microCE chip surface modification.

Electrophoretic separations on chips with hydrodynamically closed separation systems.

This review focuses on capillary electrophoretic separations performed on capillary electrophoresis chips (CE chips) with hydrodynamically closed separation systems in a context with transport processes (electroosmotic flow (EOF)) and hydrodynamic flow (HDF)) that may accompany the separations in these devices. It also reflects some relevant works dealing with conventional CE operating under such hydrodynamic conditions. The use of zone electrophoresis (ZE), isotachophoresis (ITP) and their on-line combination (ITP-ZE) on the single-column and column-coupling CE chips with the closed separation systems and related problems are key topics of the review. Some attention is paid to sample pretreatment in the separations performed on the CE chips. Here, mainly potentialities of the ITP-ZE combination in trace analysis applications of the miniaturized systems are discussed in a broader extent. Links between the ZE separation and detection provide a frame for the discussion of current status of the detection on the CE chips. Analytical applications illustrate potentialities of the CE chips operating with the closed separation systems (suppressed HDF and EOF) to the determination of small ions present in various matrices by ZE, ITP and ITP-ZE.

Microfabricated Electrophoresis Chips on Quartz Substrates and Their Applications on DNA Analysis

AbstractDesign and fabrication of microcapillary electrophoresis (CE) chips on quartz substrates are described. The micro capillary channels are formed by the combination of a metal etch mask and wet chemical etching. In this paper, a simple but reliable one‐mask process is applied to fabricate micro structures on quartz substrates, which are commercially‐available blank photomasks. The selection of the quartz substrates greatly simplifies the fabrication process. The substrates with micro channels are then bonded with an other quartz cover plate at low temperature by using diluted hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution. Good channel sealing is observed. The low temperature bonding yields low residual stress and makes chemical surface modification prior to bonding feasible, if necessary. The quartz chips with higher UV transmittance allow us to use a laser induced fluorescence detection system for chemical analysis successfully. Solutions containing Nile blue are first per formed in the CE chips as a demonstration of electrophoretic injection. The capability of the microfabricated CE chips for electrophoretic injection and separation is then characterized via the analysis of DNA fragments φX174 digested by Hae III. An excellent signal/noise ratio is obtained. In addition to single‐channel sample injection and separation, multi‐channel de vices capable of parallel electro‐migration of multi‐samples have also been demonstrated in the study.