A microfluidic device for impedance spectroscopy analysis of biological samples

The paper presents an original fabrication process of a microfluidic device for identification and characterization of cells in suspensions using mpedance spectroscopy. The device consists of two glass wafers: a bottom wafer comprising a microfluidic channel with two electrodes added or impedance measurement, and a top glass wafer in which inlets and outlets are realized. The fact that the device is glass-based provides a few ey advantages: reduced influence from parasitic components during measurements (due to the good isolation properties of the substrate), optical ransparency and hydrophilic surface of the microfluidic channel. The latter feature is especially important as it enables sample suction due to apillarity forces only. Thus, no external pumping is required and only a small volume sample suffices for the measurement. The fabrication process of this device consists of three major steps. First, via-holes and inlet/outlet holes are executed in the top glass wafer y wet etching in a 49% HF solution using a low stress amorphous silicon/silicon carbide/photoresist mask. Second, the microfluidic channel is tched into the bottom wafer and Ti/Pt electrodes are then patterned on top of it using a spray coating-based lithography. The last processing step s bonding together the top and bottom glass wafers by employing a very thin adhesive intermediate layer (SU8). This adhesive layer was applied electively only on the bottom die, from a Teflon cylinder, using a contact imprinting method. Finally, devices with three different electrode geometries were successfully tested using DI water, phosphate buffer saline (PBS), and both dead nd living yeast cells resuspended in PBS. Clear differences between dead and live cells have been observed. 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.