Lab-on-a-foil devices with integrated retro-reflective structures for multiplexed DNA testing

With the Covid-19-based global pandemic that started in the beginning of 2020, the vital importance of accelerated, reliable and affordable virus testing systems has once again become clearer. Besides, we all learned very well that the disposable biochips, to be used in these in vitro diagnostic (IVD) testing systems, supposed to be produced in large amounts in a very short time to be widely available for the use of humanity to save more and more lives. That is why; roll-to-roll (R2R) polymer structuring manners offer such large quantities for the production of in vitro biochips. Our technology, based on R2R UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL), has superior features. Via our pilot line, robust 7500 biochip components per 100 meter of a flexible, polymer foil coated with a UV curable photo-resin (i.e., parts with capillary fluidic channels or optical structures for IVDs) can be generated. This study shows an example of a prototype of a R2R UV-NIL generated chip: a foil, capillary flow-based IVD biochip for multiplexed DNA detection purposes (i.e., a Lab-on-a-Foil device). The biochip performance was further increased dramatically by integrating UV-NIL produced retro-reflective microstructures, which reflects the light back, to its design to enhance optical signal detection in a commercial IVD device, detecting DNA on a chemiluminescent-reaction basis.