A Temperature-Controllable Microelectrode and Its Application to Protein Immobilization

This letter presents a smart integrated microfluidic device which can be applied to actively immobilize proteins on demand. The active component in the device is a temperature-controllable microelectrode array with a smart polymer film, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) which can be thermally switched between hydrophilic and hydrophobic states. It is integrated into a micro hot diaphragm having an integrated micro heater and temperature sensors on a 2-micrometer-thick silicon oxide/silicon nitride/silicon oxide (O/N/O) template. Only 36 mW is required to heat the large template area of 2 mm${\times}$16 mm to $40^{\circ}C$ within 1 second. To relay the stimulus-response activity to the microelectrode surface, the interface is modified with a smart polymer. For a model biomolecular affinity test, an anti-6-(2, 4-dinitrophenyl) aminohexanoic acid (DNP) antibody protein immobilization on the microelectrodes is demonstrated by fluorescence patterns.