Integrated optical waveguides and inertial focussing microfluidics in silica for microflow cytometry applications

A key challenge in the development of a microflow cytometry platform is the integration of the optical components with the fluidics as this requires compatible micro-optical and microfluidic technologies. In this work a microflow cytometry platform is presented comprising monolithically integrated waveguides and deep microfluidics in a rugged silica chip. Integrated waveguides are used to deliver excitation light to an etched microfluidic channel and also collect transmitted light. The fluidics are designed to employ inertial focussing, a particle positioning technique, to reduce signal variation by bringing the flowing particles onto the same plane as the excitation light beam. A fabrication process is described which exploits microelectronics mass production techniques including: sputtering, ICP etching and PECVD. Example devices were fabricated and the effectiveness of inertial focussing of 5.6 µm fluorescent beads was studied showing lateral and vertical confinement of flowing beads within the microfluidic channel. The fluorescence signals from flowing calibration beads were quantified demonstrating a CV of 26%. Finally the potential of this type of device for measuring the variation in optical transmission from input to output waveguide as beads flowed through the beam was evaluated.