Laser micromachining of optical biochips

Optical biochips may incorporate both optical and microfluidic components as well as integrated light emitting semiconductor devices. They make use of a wide range of materials including polymers, glasses and thin metal films which are particularly suitable if low cost devices are envisaged. Precision laser micromachining is an ideal flexible manufacturing technique for such materials with the ability to fabricate structures to sub-micron resolutions and a proven track record in manufacturing scale up. Described here is the manufacture of a range of optical biochip devices and components using laser micromachining techniques. The devices employ both microfluidics and electrokinetic processes for biological cell manipulation and characterization. Excimer laser micromachining has been used to create complex microelectrode arrays and microfluidic channels. Excimer lasers have also been employed to create on-chip optical components such as microlenses and waveguides to allow integrated vertical and edge emitting LEDs and lasers to deliver light to analysis sites within the biochips. Ultra short pulse lasers have been used to structure wafer level semiconductor light emitting devices. Both surface patterning and bulk machining of these active wafers while maintaining functionality has been demonstrated. Described here is the use of combinations of ultra short pulse and excimer lasers for the fabrication of structures to provide ring illumination of in-wafer reaction chambers. The laser micromachining processes employed in this work require minimal post-processing and so make them ideally suited to all stages of optical biochip production from development through to small and large volume production.