Poster Presentations
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Miniaturized reference electrode coupled with microfluidics for integrated electrochemical sensors
Sahana sarkar, post doc, EMPA, Duebendorf
Electrochemical sensors are well suited for wafer-scale integration with microelectronics and microfluidics using CMOS compatible microfabrication techniques making them cost-effective and robust. However, the technological bottleneck for fully integrated commercialized point-of-care devices are two-fold: On the one hand, microfluidics does not follow the same fabrication and scaling rules as electronics and sensing devices. So far, this field has been dominated by soft lithographic techniques, making them unsuitable for large-scale production. On the other hand, miniaturization of electrochemical sensors renders the reference electrode (RE), one of its key components, short-lived and unreliable. Upon downscaling, leakage of the reference solution becomes a predominant factor that results in rapid dissolution of the RE material and sample contamination at the salt bridge junction. However, implementing a stable RE is crucial for the accuracy of the detection platform, especially for long-term monitoring of analytes. Here, we propose a novel screen printed micro-RE using glass microfluidics. The system is based on continuous replenishment of reference solution, tuned to prevent contamination at the junction and enhance the reliability of the RE over an extended period of time.
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