Low-temperature co-fired ceramic microchannels with individually addressable screen-printed gold electrodes on four walls for self-contained electrochemical immunoassays

Microchannel devices were constructed from low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) materials with screen-printed gold (SPG) electrodes in three dimensions—on all four walls—for self-contained enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays with electrochemical detection. The microchannel confines the solution to a small volume, allowing concentration of electroactive enzymatically generated product and nearby electrodes provide high-speed and high-sensitivity detection: it also facilitates future integration with microfluidics. LTCC materials allow easy construction of three-dimensional structures compared with more traditional materials such as glass and polymer materials. Parallel processing of LTCC layers is more amenable to mass production and fast prototyping, compared with sequential processing for integrating multiple features into a single device. LTCC and SPG have not been reported previously as the basis for microchannel immunoassays, nor with integrated, individually addressable electrodes in three dimensions. A demonstration assay for mouse IgG at 5.0 ng/mL (3.3 × 10-11 M) with electrochemical detection was achieved within a 1.8 cm long × 290 μm high × 130 μm wide microchannel (approximately 680 nL). Two of four SPG electrodes span the top and bottom walls and serve as the auxiliary electrode and the assay site, respectively. The other two (0.7 cm long × 97 μm wide) are centered lengthwise on the sidewalls of the channel. One serves as the working and the other as the pseudoreference electrode. The immunoassay components were immobilized at the bottom SPG region. Enzymatically generated p-aminophenol was detected at the internal working electrode within 15 s of introducing the enzyme substrate p-aminophenyl phosphate. A series of buffer rinses avoided nonspecific adsorption and false-positive signals.