Silicon nanopillar-based open microfluidic channel integrated biosensor for real-time detection

Abstract

This thesis reports the silicon nanopillar-based open channel system for real-time detection. Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) is a MEMS-based device that has high quality factor due to its vacuum cavity. Therefore, it has potential as sensitive micro-biosensor. However, in water condition, the sensitivity of CMUT is decreased by damping. By this reason, it is difficult that conventional microfluidic channel system is applied to CMUT sensor for real-time monitoring. Here, we suggest a silicon nanopillar-based open channel system using wicking flow for real-time detection. The effect of nanopillar structure was confirmed by FEM simulation. In addition, the pillar structure was fabricated. Thus, we demonstrate the potential of the open channel system as real-time monitoring system.