Three-dimensional electrode integration with microwave sensors for precise microparticle detection in microfluidics

Abstract

Microwave sensors integrated with microfluidic platforms can provide the size and permittivity of single cells and microparticles. Among the microwave sensor topologies, the planar arrangement of electrodes is a popular choice owing to the ease of fabrication. Unfortunately, planar electrodes generate a nonuniform electric field, which causes the responsivity of the sensor to depend on the vertical position of a microparticle in the microfluidic channel. To overcome this problem, we fabricated 3-D electrodes at the coplanar sensing region of an underlying microwave resonator. The 3-D electrodes are based on SU8 polymer, which is then metallized by sputter coating. With this system, we readily characterized a mixture composed of 12- and 20 μm polystyrene particles and demonstrated separation without any position-related calibration. The ratio of the electronic response of the two particle types is approximately equal to the ratio of the particle volumes, which indicates the generation of a uniform electric field at the sensing region. This work obviates the need for using multiple coplanar electrodes and extensive processing of the data for the calibration of particle height in a microfluidic channel: as such, it enables the fabrication of more sophisticated microwave resonators for environmental and biological applications.