Integration of Dye Lasers and Microfluidics for Biochemical Analysis

Author: Chen, Yan

Year: 2009

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: Scherer, Axel

Committee Members: Scherer, Axel; Yang, Changhuei; Guo, Chin-Lin; Painter, Oskar J.; Tai, Yu-Chong

Option: Bioengineering

DOI: 10.7907/2E06-0W63

Abstract

This dissertation describes the study of two important aspects of integration in microfluidics: optics and biochemistry. In optics integration, two types of miniaturized dye lasers, namely the solid-state polymer dye lasers and optofluidic dye lasers were demonstrated. Both of the dye lasers possess a resonant cavity with circular grating geometry, and they are suitable to serve as low-threshold, surface-emitting coherent light source in microfluidic networks. The mass production and large scale fabrication of such low-cost dye laser arrays can be realized by the well developed nanoimprint and soft lithography, making this technology attractive for various biochemical applications. In biochemistry integration, a microfluidic system was developed to fully utilize the complexity of microfluidic circuits to process single cells and extract gene expression information in a parallel manner. The work presented here explored both the optics and biochemistry integration in microfluidics, which are the key issues for further development of complete “lab-on-a-chip” systems.

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