Electroacoustic polymer microchip as an alternative to quartz crystal microbalance for biosensor development

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biotechnology
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a flexible dielectric organic polymer.
• Miniaturized biosensors are crucial for advanced bioanalysis and diagnostics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and validate a miniaturized acoustic DNA biosensor using laser photoablation of PET.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of using PET-based electroacoustic resonance for DNA hybridization detection.

Main Methods:

• Laser photoablation was used to create microchannels and a gold-decorated disk on a 100-microm-thick PET layer.
• An electroacoustic resonance phenomenon at ~30 MHz was established and analyzed using an equivalent circuit model.
• DNA hybridization was performed on the gold surface, and changes in R, L, and C parameters were recorded.

Main Results:

• Reproducible changes in electrical parameters (R, L, C) were observed upon DNA hybridization.
• The PET-based biosensor showed comparable results to a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM).
• The developed PET device is approximately 100 times smaller than a QCM.

Conclusions:

• Laser photoablated PET can be effectively used to create miniaturized acoustic biosensors.
• The PET electroacoustic biosensor is a promising platform for large-scale integration in biochips.
• This technology offers a significant size reduction compared to existing acoustic biosensor technologies.