Development of a Microfluidic Device for Precise Control of Sample Delivery for ISFET Testing

Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistors (ISFETs) are micron-scale sensors that can be integrated with other electronics on a single silicon integrated circuit (“chip”), enabling very small, low power smart sensors. These chips can be as small as 2mm x 2mm and the ISFETs themselves are even smaller. In order to test the pH sensing ability of these chips, we use a micropipette to hold the solution to be measured on the chip. This micropipette must be manually filled and emptied by hand.

The goal for this project is to design and develop a controllable microfluidic system to perform these functions with high precision. For example, the system could pump the required pH solution from a storage reservoir to a fluid well on the chip. The chip would then measure the pH of the solution. Once the measurement is complete, the system would evacuate the fluid well to remove all the solution from the chip, preparing it for the next measurement. The system should allow this process to be repeatable for multiple different pH solutions located in separate storage reservoirs. The process should be controllable via software on a computer or microcontroller or similar.

The project deliverables should be:

• A report and presentation that describes the microfluidic system design and operation
• A prototype of the working system 
  

Biomedical Engineering