Design and integration of a generic disposable array-compatible sensor housing into an integrated disposable indirect...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Sensor Technology

Background:

• Biosensors require user-friendly designs and disposable components for biomedical applications.
• Integrating arbitrary sensors into a cohesive system presents engineering challenges.
• Existing systems may lack efficient separation of disposable and reusable parts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integration strategy for arbitrary sensors as biosensors.
• To create a user-friendly, disposable sensor housing compatible with microfluidics.
• To establish a system for arbitrary 8-fold sensor arrays with indirect microfluidic flow injection analysis (FIA).

Main Methods:

• Designed a generic, array-compatible polymer sensor housing with a 1.55 μl sample volume.
• Combined the housing with a passive disposable microfluidic chip for 8-fold sensor arrays.
• Implemented an indirect microfluidic flow injection analysis (FIA) system using tetradecane as an intermediate liquid.
• Utilized a surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor as an exemplary detector.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a sensor housing allowing sensor surface accessibility post-embedding.
• Successfully created 8-fold sensor arrays using the developed housing and microfluidic chip.
• Showcased an indirect microfluidic FIA system with strict separation of disposable and reusable components.
• Presented comparative measurements validating the integrated system against classical macroscopic FIA.

Conclusions:

• The proposed integration strategy yields a versatile and user-friendly biosensor system.
• The system effectively separates disposable and reusable components, meeting biomedical application demands.
• This approach offers a robust platform for various bioanalytical and biomedical sensing applications.