Holistic engineering approach to increase sensitivity of a miniaturised fluorescence detector for POCT systems

The demand for rapid in vitro diagnosis (IVD) point-of-care testing (POCT) systems to be used outside of a traditional healthcare setting has been vastly expanding. Effective fabrication solutions need to be forward thought to satisfy miniaturized and heterogeneously integrated POCT.

A holistic engineering approach to increase sensitivity of a miniaturised fluorescence detector for POCT systems was carried out. The study investigated how effective fabrication methods could deliver a better performance fluorescence detector (FD) to be well fitted in sophisticated and varying POCT systems. SLA and SLS were introduced in the study and evaluated through the measurement of surface texture of roughness with an Alicona Infinite Focus instrument. SLA was ultimately selected to produce a functional OFD through the validation with a selected fluorescence dye, i.e., Cy5. A limit of detection was reached of 1.209x10-10 Mol to reach a certain level of IVD detection.

In addition to this anisotropic wet etching was investigated as a portal into the development of miniaturised integration microfluidic FD. A case study was performed to compare the sensitivity of the FD’s design, manufactured and tested against another style of FD.

The work creates an avenue of rapid screening POCT OFD fabrication solutions with a view on high performance and multi-functional detection systems not only in POCT, but also high-throughput (HTP) screening in life sciences and environmental applications.