Integrated circuit-based instrumentation for microchip capillary electrophoresis.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Microchip electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection offers potential for point-of-care diagnostics.
• Current instrumentation is often large and expensive, limiting widespread adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design a compact and cost-effective integrated circuit (IC) for microchip electrophoresis with LIF detection.
• To enable the development of portable and inexpensive lab-on-a-chip diagnostic systems.

Main Methods:

• Development of a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) IC (<0.25 cm², 28 mW power consumption) integrating high voltage generation, switching, control, and interface circuits.
• Utilized a universal serial bus (USB) interface for power and control via a laptop.
• Demonstrated the IC's functionality in various configurations.

Main Results:

• Successful implementation of microchip electrophoresis with LIF detection using the developed CMOS IC.
• Analysis of DNA from end-labelled polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products.
• Achieved a limit of detection of approximately 1 ng/µL for total DNA.

Conclusions:

• The developed CMOS IC enables extremely compact and inexpensive portable systems for lab-on-a-chip electrophoresis.
• This technology represents a novel CMOS-based LIF capillary electrophoresis instrument.
• Potential for ultra-low-cost (<$10) lab-on-a-chip electrophoretic instruments for disease diagnostics.