Design of disposable DNA biosensor microchip with amperometric detection featuring PCB substrate

Innovative Quantification of Critical Quality Attributes

Potency testing is an important part of the evaluation of cellular therapy products. In vitro quantification of identified quality-related biomarkers is a technique often used at the laboratory. Nonetheless, the limited stability of most cellular therapy products, the lot variability and the limited time within which to perform testing are currently hindering their widespread use. Fortunately, within the last two decades, the evolution of material technology and miniaturisation processes has enabled the research community to shift the spotlight of attention towards the Lab-on-Chip concept for diagnostic applications. Such devices enable portable, rapid, sensitive, automated and affordable biochemical analyses aiming to advance the healthcare services across a broad application spectrum. However, it could be argued that the aspirations on their affordability are far from being exceeded, mainly due to the lack of a practical manufacturing technology. The Lab-on-Printed Circuit Board (Lab-on-PCB) approach has demonstrated enormous potential for developing economical diagnostic platforms leveraging the advantage provided by economy of scale manufacturing of the long-standing PCB industry. The integration capabilities that the PCB platform introduces to the Lab-on-Chip concept concerning the electronics and microfluidics seem to be unique. In this chapter, we will be reviewing the progress of Lab-on-PCB prototypes quantifying within miniaturised microchips a range of critical quality attributes with potential in potency testing. We will focus on their technology and applications whilst addressing the potential of this approach in practical use and commercialisation.

The lab-on-PCB approach: tackling the μTAS commercial upscaling bottleneck

Commercialization of lab-on-a-chip devices is currently the "holy grail" within the μTAS research community. While a wide variety of highly sophisticated chips which could potentially revolutionize healthcare, biology, chemistry and all related disciplines are increasingly being demonstrated, very few chips are or can be adopted by the market and reach the end-users. The major inhibition factor lies in the lack of an established commercial manufacturing technology. The lab-on-printed circuit board (lab-on-PCB) approach, while suggested many years ago, only recently has re-emerged as a very strong candidate, owing to its inherent upscaling potential: the PCB industry is well established all around the world, with standardized fabrication facilities and processes, but commercially exploited currently only for electronics. Owing to these characteristics, complex μTASs integrating microfluidics, sensors, and electronics on the same PCB platform can easily be upscaled, provided more processes and prototypes adapted to the PCB industry are proposed. In this article, we will be reviewing for the first time the PCB-based prototypes presented in the literature to date, highlighting the upscaling potential of this technology. The authors believe that further evolution of this technology has the potential to become a much sought-after standardized industrial fabrication technology for low-cost μTASs, which could in turn trigger the projected exponential market growth of μTASs, in a fashion analogous to the revolution of Si microchips via the CMOS industry establishment.