Integration of optical and microfluidic functions in a hollow waveguide platform

The application of micro/nanotechnology (MNT) in emerging markets, such as biomedical, healthcare and environmental monitoring requires increasingly complex levels of functional integration across multiple physical domains, such as fluidic, optical, mechanical, electrical and biological. The significant challenges facing developers of such microsystems include multi-domain interfacing and multitechnology integration. In this context, the combination of optical and microfluidic functions in a hollow waveguide platform, "BioCanal", is being investigated as part of the INTEGRAMplus EUROPRACTICE programme. The ability to embed optical functions within the fluid core offers significant potential for bio-sensing with appropriate detection chemistries. The hollow waveguide with a fluid core offers good optical performance over a wide waveband (UV-IR) with appropriate coatings and design. Microfluidic channels are simultaneously formed by bonding the lids to the substrates containing etched waveguides and strategies for external optical and fluidic interfacing have been developed.