Lab-on-a-chip optical detection system using plastic fiber optics

摘要

A new optical detection system for microfluidic lab-on-a-chip applications is described. The photomultiplier tube (PMT) system is controlled by LabVIEW and has output/primary current gains that are programmable from 10~4 to 10~7. Light is delivered to and from microfluidic systems by a custom launch-and-detect fiber probe fabricated from one-millimeter plastic optical fibers. The noise characteristics are descrbied and the detection of fluorescent 15μm polystyrene spheres is demonstrated. Using the measured static spatial response of the tip, the velocities of moving microparticles can be calculated from dynamic measurements of their fluorescence.