Direct-Dispense Polymeric Waveguides Platform for Optical Chemical Sensors

Sensors

Mohamad Hajj-Hassan²  Timothy Gonzalez¹  Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh²  Hagop Djeghelian¹  Vamsy Chodavarapu²  Mark Andrews¹ 

[1] Department of Chemistry, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2K6; E-Mails:;Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, 3480 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2A7; E-Mails:

关键词: Direct-Dispense;    Direct-Write;    Xerogels;    Oxygen Sensors;    Waveguides;    Optical Sensors;    Fluorescence;    Chemical Sensors;    Polymer Waveguides;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s8127636

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We describe an automated robotic technique called direct-dispense to fabricate a polymeric platform that supports optical sensor arrays. Direct-dispense, which is a type of the emerging direct-write microfabrication techniques, uses fugitive organic inks in combination with cross-linkable polymers to create microfluidic channels and other microstructures. Specifically, we describe an application of direct-dispensing to develop optical biochemical sensors by fabricating planar ridge waveguides that support sol-gel-derived xerogel-based thin films. The xerogel-based sensor materials act as host media to house luminophore biochemical recognition elements. As a prototype implementation, we demonstrate gaseous oxygen (O₂) responsive optical sensors that operate on the basis of monitoring luminescence intensity signals. The optical sensor employs a Light Emitting Diode (LED) excitation source and a standard silicon photodiode as the detector. The sensor operates over the full scale (0%-100%) of O₂ concentrations with a response time of less than 1 second. This work has implications for the development of miniaturized multi-sensor platforms that can be cost-effectively and reliably mass-produced.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2008 by the authors; licensee molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.