Development of a novel printed flexible microfluidic sensing platform based on PCB technology

A novel printed microfluidic sensing platform (MSP) has been successfully developed for the detection of bio/chemicals. Interdigitated electrodes (IDE) were fabricated by inkjet printing silver (Ag) based ink on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. For the first time, printed circuit board (PCB) technology was used to create master molds for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based microfluidic channels. The printed PET substrate and PDMS microfluidic channels were bonded to form the MSP. The capability of the fabricated MSP for detecting very low concentrations of bio/chemicals was demonstrated. The electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) based response of the system revealed picomolar detection levels as well as the feasibility of integrating conventional PCB and printing technology to create flexible MSPs for various bio/chemical sensing applications. The response of the developed MSP is analyzed and presented in this paper.