Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper presents a low temperature technological process able to integrate an all-glass microfluidic network with an ElectroWetting On Dielectric (EWOD) structure for the digital handling of liquids. The fluidic channels result from the wet-etching of the glass, while the electrodes necessary for the droplet movement are deposited on the bottom and top surfaces of the microfluidic structure. The bottom electrodes are produced by a selective and sequential photolithographic pattern of a stack of metals, insulation layer and hydrophobic film.

This paper presents the fabrication and testing of a lab-on-chip system suitable for treatment of DNA. It includes two main modules: a system-on-glass (SoG) and a disposable microfuidic chip. The SoG integrates, on the same glass substrate, thin film metal heaters and amorphous silicon temperature sensors to achieve a uniform temperature distribution (within 1°C) in the heated area. Two polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic chips have been developed: a PCR-Chip for DNA amplification and a dsDNA-Chip for separation and selective isolation of a ssDNA from a dsDNA.

We present the design of an integrated optoelectronic device based on an evanescent waveguide sensor with a-Si:H photodiodes and ion-exchange diffused glass waveguides for on-chip biomolecular detection.

This work reports on design and fabrication of a compact lab-on-chip system, based on detection of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) through thin film sensors. The proposed system couples an optoelectronic platform to a disposable microfluidic chip. The optoelectronic platform includes amorphous silicon photosensors for detection of ECL, while the microfluidic chip contains the ECL electrodes and the biological solutions to be analyzed.

Lab-on-chip are analytical systems which, compared to traditional methods, offer significant reduction of sample, reagent, energy consumption and waste production. Within this framework, we report on the development and testing of an optoelectronic platform suitable for the on-chip detection of fluorescent molecules. The platform combines on a single glass substrate hydrogenated amorphous silicon photosensors and a long pass interferential filter.

Degenerative pathologies are among the greatest long-term risk for astronauts exposed to hazard environment during deep space mission. A breakthrough goal in this area, to improve risk modeling, is to provide biological in-situ analysis of those effects. For this purpose, we developed a scientific payload to study the space environment’s effects on cellular cultures. The system is a micro-incubator based on lab-on-chip technology with integrated thin-film sensors and actuators for the active control of the environmental conditions of the cell culture.

The present paper describes the development of an integrated lab-on-chip, in which viral DNA amplifica- tion with real-time on-chip detection is carried out under constant temperature of 65 °C. The lab-on-chip is composed of a disposable 10-uL polydimethylsiloxane reaction chamber which is thermally and opti- cally coupled to a glass substrate that hosts a thin-film metallic resistive heater and thin-film amorphous silicon diodes which act as temperature and radiation sensors.

This work reports on the design, simulation and fabrication of an autonomous microfluidic network. It is a part of a highly integrated, new analytical platform for the multiparametric detection of bio-organic molecules in extra-terrestrial environment. The proposed microfluidic system, made in SU-8 3050, allows to obtain an autonomous microfluidic network able to have simultaneous capillary filling and fresh solution into each site of detection avoiding cross-contamination among different sites.

In this paper, we present an optoelectronic system-on-glass (SoG), suitable for detection of fluorescent molecule. It integrates, on the same glass substrate, an array of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photosensors and a thin film interferential filter. The system can be directly coupled with another glass substrate hosting a polydimethylsiloxane based microfluidic network where the fluorescent phenomena occur.

This article presents the successful design, fabrication and testing of a miniaturized system integrating capillarity and electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) technology in a microfluidic network. In particular, the change in hydrophobicity occurring at the interphase between a capillary channel and a hydrophobic layer has been exploited using EWOD as a stop-go fluid valve.