Integrating optical waveguides in electrowetting-on-dielectric digital microfluidic chips

Readout through a microscope-based setup is one of the most prevalent optical detection methods used in current digital (i.e. droplet-based) electrowetting-on-dielectric lab-on-chip devices. The integration of waveguides on such devices allows further size and complexity reduction for absorption, fl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors and actuators. B, Chemical Chemical, 2013-05, Vol.181, p.166-171
Main Authors: Ceyssens, Frederik, Witters, Daan, Van Grimbergen, Thom, Knez, Karel, Lammertyn, Jeroen, Puers, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
absorption
Digital lab-on-chip
droplets
Electrowetting
EWOD
fluorescence
Gold nanoparticles
Lab-on-chip
nanogold
Optical waveguides
polymers
surface plasmon resonance
Waveguides
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Summary:Readout through a microscope-based setup is one of the most prevalent optical detection methods used in current digital (i.e. droplet-based) electrowetting-on-dielectric lab-on-chip devices. The integration of waveguides on such devices allows further size and complexity reduction for absorption, fluorescence and surface plasmon resonance based detection mechanisms. In this paper, we show a straightforward method to integrate multimode polymer optical waveguides on an EWOD device. A proof-of-concept system is presented that allows droplets to be transported by EWOD actuation to a gap between two opposing waveguides down to 300μm in size, and engulf the integrated waveguides for transmission measurements. The system is validated using a gold nanoparticle based model assay.
ISSN:0925-4005
1873-3077
DOI:10.1016/j.snb.2013.01.078