TY - JOUR
T1 - A Simple 3-D Microelectrode Fabrication Process and Its Application in Microfluidic Impedance Cytometry
AU - Shen, Hailong
AU - Ji, Bowen
AU - Feng, Huicheng
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2001-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2022/11/15
Y1 - 2022/11/15
N2 - Microfluidic impedance cytometry (MIC) has wide applications in single-cell analysis. However, the complex microelectrode fabrication process seriously restricts the miniaturization and commercialization of MIC devices. Common microelectrode configurations such as a coplanar electrode, a symmetric electrode, and a liquid electrode have difficulties in meeting the requirements of high detection accuracy and simple fabrication at the same time. Hence, a simple 3-D symmetric microelectrode fabrication process is developed in this article. We design a microchip containing both a microfluidic channel and a microelectrode channel. The alloy with high surface tension and low melting point is used to fabricate the 3-D microelectrodes by injecting the melted alloy into the microelectrode channel with a properly controlled driving pressure. The melted alloy flows into the microelectrode channel and automatically stops at the end of the microelectrode channel due to the effect of surface tension. This process intrinsically provides a high-precision alignment for the 3-D microelectrodes. The fabricated MIC chip is experimentally tested, and the results show that it can effectively count and classify microspheres of different sizes. This study can facilitate the development and commercialization of MIC devices.
AB - Microfluidic impedance cytometry (MIC) has wide applications in single-cell analysis. However, the complex microelectrode fabrication process seriously restricts the miniaturization and commercialization of MIC devices. Common microelectrode configurations such as a coplanar electrode, a symmetric electrode, and a liquid electrode have difficulties in meeting the requirements of high detection accuracy and simple fabrication at the same time. Hence, a simple 3-D symmetric microelectrode fabrication process is developed in this article. We design a microchip containing both a microfluidic channel and a microelectrode channel. The alloy with high surface tension and low melting point is used to fabricate the 3-D microelectrodes by injecting the melted alloy into the microelectrode channel with a properly controlled driving pressure. The melted alloy flows into the microelectrode channel and automatically stops at the end of the microelectrode channel due to the effect of surface tension. This process intrinsically provides a high-precision alignment for the 3-D microelectrodes. The fabricated MIC chip is experimentally tested, and the results show that it can effectively count and classify microspheres of different sizes. This study can facilitate the development and commercialization of MIC devices.
KW - Low-melting-point alloy
KW - microelectrode fabrication process
KW - microfluidic impedance cytometry (MIC)
KW - surface tension
KW - symmetric 3-D microelectrodes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139849859&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/JSEN.2022.3211443
DO - 10.1109/JSEN.2022.3211443
M3 - 文章
AN - SCOPUS:85139849859
SN - 1530-437X
VL - 22
SP - 22107
EP - 22116
JO - IEEE Sensors Journal
JF - IEEE Sensors Journal
IS - 22
ER -