Microfluidic Packaging Integration with Electronic-Photonic Biosensors Using 3D Printed Transfer Molding

Area of Science:

• Integrated photonics
• Microfluidics
• Biosensing

Background:

• Multiplexed sensing on integrated silicon electronic-photonic platforms demands microfluidics with both high-density micro-scale channels and meso-scale features.
• These features are essential for optical, electrical, and fluidic coupling within confined millimeter-scale areas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a facile and rapid method for creating complex multilayer microfluidics for integration with electronic-photonic system-on-chips.
• To enable simultaneous optical, electrical, and microfluidic coupling for multiplexed sensing applications.

Main Methods:

• Utilized three-dimensional (3D) printed transfer molding to fabricate microfluidic devices.
• Integrated microfluidics with monolithic silicon photonic chips featuring multiplexed rows of 5 μm radius micro-ring resonators (MRRs).

Main Results:

• Successfully demonstrated a microfluidic packaging strategy for integrated silicon photonic biosensors.
• Showcased the capability to create both micro and meso-scale features in multilayer microfluidics.

Conclusions:

• The developed 3D printed microfluidic approach facilitates the integration of complex fluidic systems with silicon photonics.
• This strategy lays the foundation for highly multiplexed molecular sensing on-chip.