A SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATED MICROFLUIDIC PRESSURE SENSOR BASED ON AN IONIC LIQUID ELECTROFLUIDIC CIRCUIT

Chueh-Yu Wu, Wei-Hao Liao, and Yi-Chung Tung Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, TAIWAN

ABSTRACT
A novel pressure sensor with electrical readout based on ionic liquid (IL) electrofluidic circuit is reported in this paper. The pressure measurement is achieved by measuring the electrical property variation of the circuit induced by the pressure inside the microfluidic devices. The sensor integrated microfluidic device is made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and can be fabricated using the well-developed multilayer soft lithography (MSL) without additional microfabrication processes. Therefore, the pressure sensor is fully disposable, and can be seamlessly integrated into PDMS microfluidic devices. Moreover, an IL electrofluidic Wheatstone bridge is designed to provide the device linear output, great long-term and thermal stability. In this paper, the sensor performance characterization using pressurized gas and liquid flowing in the microfluidic channel have been conducted. The experimental results demonstrate the advantages of the device. The developed pressure sensor has great potentials for the development of next generation sensor-integrated microfluidic systems.

multilayer soft lithography (MSL) technique without further sophisticated cleanroom processes [4].

DEVICE DESIGN
The pressure sensor integrated microfluidic device is composed of a glass substrate and two PDMS microfluidic layers: a pressure sensing electrofluidic circuit layer and a fluidic channel layer, which are separated by a deformable PDMS membrane with thickness of 100 m as shown in Figure 1. On the electrofluidic circuit layer, four identical sets of electrofluidic resistors are arranged as a Wheatstone bridge circuit. On the fluidic channel layer, a microfluidic channel with a meander section is designed to provide fluidic resistance for demonstration. In addition, a short branch channel connected to a pressure transduction hole is designed on the fluidic channel layer for pressure measurement. A 4 mm-diameter hole for pressure transduction is punched and aligned to one of the electrofluidic resistor for pressure sensing. The operation principle of the pressure sensor is measuring the electrical property variation of the electrofluidic circuit induced by the pressure inside the microfluidic devices. While the pressure inside the microfluidic channel in the fluidic channel layer is increased, it deforms the membrane sandwiched between two PDMS layers according to the applied pressure. The membrane deformation further alters the cross-sectional area of the pressure sensing electrofluidic resistor, and causes the resulted electrical resistance change. As a result, the pressure inside the microfluidic channel can be estimated by the resistance variation. In order to precisely measure the electrical resistance change, an electrofluidic Wheatstone bridge is designed to transfer the resistance variation to a voltage signal. Wheatstone bridge has been widely used in many detection schemes, such as mechanical strain measurement [5], due to its thermal stability. Fig. 1 illustrates the photo a Wheatstone bridge constructed by IL electrofluidic circuit and its equivalent electrical configuration. By Kirchhoffs circuit laws, the gate voltage, VG, across the bridge can be calculated by:
R1 1 VG = VS R4 + R1 2

INTRODUCTION
Pressure sensors are key components in various microfluidic systems, such as BioMEMS and micro-total analysis systems (TAS) [1]. An elastomeric material, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), has been broadly exploited for microfluidic device fabrication due to its optical transparency and great manufacturability. Therefore, pressure sensors capable of being seamlessly integrated into the PDMS microfluidic devices are highly desired. Several integrated pressure-sensing schemes have been developed in the previous research; for instance: a pressure sensor based on image-based analysis of PDMS membranes. The measurement is achieved using modern optical technologies with high sensitivity [2]. A conductive PDMS-based pressure sensor, which provides an electrical interface, has been developed for better integration with PDMS device [3]. However, the existing devices still suffer from drawbacks such as, massive instrument requirements, complex signal analysis, and tedious assembly, which retard their practical exploitation in microfluidic devices. This paper presents a novel fully disposable and cost-effective pressure sensor with electrical readout. The developed sensor is constructed using an ionic liquid (IL)-based PDMS electrofluidic circuit, and it can be directly fabricated on top of various microfluidic devices. By using IL, which is electrical conductive and thermally stable, the device possesses excellent long-term stability. Moreover, the integrated device can be simply fabricated by well-developed

(1)

where R1~R4 is the electrical resistance of each branch. For the design with initially identical resistors, the gate voltage approaches zero. Specifically, the resistor R4 is exploited for pressure sensing, and its resistance value depends on the material property and the channel geometry. According to Ohms law, the resistance value is inversely

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advantages: long-term and thermal stability. The long-term stability is resulted from the extremely low vapor pressure and hygroscopic nature of IL. Therefore, the IL electrofluidic circuit does not suffer the variation due to the evaporation of IL, even the volume of IL (on the order of tens of l) is small. The thermal stability is resulted from the utilization of the integrated Wheatstone bridge circuit. The bridge circuit is constructed by the four identical resistors, and their positions are close to each other. As a result, the temperature fluctuation in PDMS will increase or decrease the resistance values by the same order. Since, the gate voltage in the Wheatstone bridge is determined by the ratios between resistances, these identically changed values will be cancelled out. Consequently, the gate voltage is insensitive to the time and temperature fluctuation, which provides the developed pressure sensor stable performances. Figure 1. (A) Photo of the fabricated PDMS microfluidic device with a seamlessly integrated pressure sensor based on an ionic liquid electrofluidic circuit. Blue dye presents the electrofluidic circuit layer (top), and red dye represents the fluidic channel layer (bottom) with a circular pressure transduction hole. (B) Close view of the Wheatstone bridge circuit constructed using the ionic liquid electrofluidic circuit. R1~R4 are the electrofluidic resistors, and R4 is the pressure sensing one. A voltage signal VS is applied through interconnections A and C, while the gate voltage VG is monitored at interconnections B and D. (C) The equivalent electrical circuit of the ionic liquid-filled microfluidic channels constructed for pressure sensing. proportional to the cross-sectional area:
R4 = Lc Ac

DEVICE FABRICATION
Figure 2 shows the fabrication steps of the entire microfluidic device with an integrated pressure sensor using the well-developed MSL technique. The PDMS (Sylgard 184, Dow Corning, Midland, MI) used in the entire fabrication process was prepared by PDMS precursor with 10:1 v/v of base to curing agent ratio. The patterns on the two layers, electrofluidic circuit layer and fluidic channel layer, were replicated from molds fabricated using a negative tone photoresist, SU-8, patterned by conventional photolithography. The electrofluidic circuit layer was made by PDMS cast against a silicon wafer mold silanized by 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorooctyl Trichlorosilane (97%) (L16606, Alfa Aesar, Ward Hill, MA), and the PDMS was cured in a 65oC oven for more than 4 hours. The cured PDMS layer was peeled from the wafer, and punched with four holes for IL injection and electrical connections. The fabricated electrofluidic circuit layer was then bonded onto a PDMS membrane using oxygen plasma surface treatments (90 W, 40 sec). The membrane had thickness of 100 m and was made by spinning PDMS precursor onto a silanized silicon wafer. The fluidic channel layer was also made by the same method as the electrofluidic circuit layer. The fluidic channel layer was punched by one hole for pressure transduction before the bonding. The assembled electrofluidic layer with the PDMS membrane was bonded to the fluidic channel layer with the pressure transduction hole aligned to pressure sensing resistor, R4. After assembling the two PDMS layers, the inlet and outlet to access the microfluidic channel in the fluidic channel layer were punched through the entire device. Finally, the entire PDMS structure was bounded to a glass substrate. After the device fabrication, ionic liquid (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide) was injected into the electrofluidic circuit channels. The inlet of the fluidic channel is then connected to a syringe pump for fluidic actuation. The electrical interconnections to the electrofluidic circuit were achieved by inserting stainless steel blunt needles with electrical wires. Because of the hygroscopic nature of the IL, it can be retained in

(2)

where is the resistivity, Lc is the length of the channel, and Ac is the cross-sectional area of the channel. While the pressure in the fluidic channel increases, the membrane will deform upward and decrease the cross-section area of the resistor R4. As a result, the resistance value of R4 will increase correspondingly:
L c R 4 = 2 A c A

(3)

where A is the cross-sectional area reduction. Assuming the deformation A is small, the resistance variation R4 will also be small. The gate voltage can be approximated by the first order of the Taylor expansion:
V VG = S R4 4 R1

(4)

Thus, as R4 is substituted by the result of Ohms law, the gate voltage change can be estimated by linear relationship: VS Lc (5)
VG = 2 A4 4 R1 Ac

As a result, applied pressure affects the resistance value, and further causes the linear gate voltage variation in the Wheatstone bridge circuit. Besides the linear output, the integrated IL electrofluidic Wheatstone bridge circuit provides the device two essential

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Figure 3. Schematic of the experimental setup for the device characterization. Figure 4 shows the measured I-V curve of the electrofluidic circuit, and the result of a linear regression analysis. The calculated electrical resistance of the entire circuit (or each resistor) is approximately 1.787 M. The excellent linearity (correlation coefficient R2 > 0.998) of the I-V curve suggests the pure resistor behavior within the applied voltage range with minimal parasitic capacitance or inductance effects. Consequently, the aforementioned theoretical derivation for the Wheatstone bridge using pure resistors can be expected to correctly predict the device performance. Pressure sensor calibration using pressurized gas. In order to calibrate the sensor performance, a dead-end microfluidic channel in the fluidic channel layer was pressurized using nitrogen gas. The gas was supplied by a nitrogen gas cylinder with a pressure regulator. During the calibration, the DAQ system continuously recorded the gate voltage while the gas pressure was regulated from 0 psi to 30 psi with the increment of 5 psi. Every pressure level was hold for 2 minutes, and the gate voltage in the second minute was averaged to present the gate voltage at each pressure. Figure 5 shows the calibration results. The linear regression analysis was also applied to examine the relationship between the gate voltage change and pressure, and the resulted correlation coefficient R2 was 0.994. The high correlation coefficient suggests the highly linear performance of the pressure sensor in the applied pressure range as derived in equation (5). It also shows that 1 psi increase results in 8.45 mV gate voltage decrease. Liquid pressure measurement using the developed pressure sensor. The developed device was further exploited for liquid pressure measurement. A LabVIEW program was coded to record the gate voltage using the DAQ system, and control the syringe pump through a RS-232 serial interface simultaneously. The flow rate was set from 0 to 100 L/min with the increment of 10 L/min, and each flow rate was kept for 900 seconds for reaching the steady states. Figure 6 shows the measurement results while injecting a fluid (water) into the device with controlled flow rates. The minimum flow rate tested was 10 l/min, and this flow yielded a pressure of approximate 0.63 psi at the upstream of the channel according to the aforementioned calibration results. The result verifies that the pressure sensor has the resolution of at least 0.63 psi or 10 l/min in the conventional microfluidic channel. The linear regression analysis was also applied to examine the relationship between flow rate and gate voltage change, which was calculated by averaging the last 5 minutes data for each flow rate. The result also showed high correlation coefficient, R2 =0.993, meaning the output gate voltage variation

Figure 2. The fabrication process for the multi-layer PDMS microfluidic device with a seamlessly integrated pressure sensor. the electrofluidic channel without significant evaporation [6].

DEVICE CHARACTERIZATION
Figure 3 illustrates the experimental setup for the device characterization. We utilized a personal computer with a data acquisition (DAQ) system (PCIe-6363, National Instruments, Austin, TX) and LabVIEW programs (Version 2009, National Instruments) for the syringe pump control (Fusion 200, Chemyx, Stafford, TX), and the electrical signal application and detection. The device characterization can be categorized into three major parts: 1. Electrofluidic circuit current-voltage (I-V) curve measurement, 2. Pressure sensor calibration using pressurized gas, and 3. Liquid pressure measurement using the developed pressure sensor. Electrofluidic circuit I-V curve measurement. To investigate the electrical characteristics of the constructed electrofluidic Wheatstone bridge circuit, an I-V curve was measured across the entire circuit (terminals A and C) in the Figure 1C. In order to eliminate the influence of the pressure for the circuit characterization, an electrofluidic layer directly bonded on a glass substrate was utilized to measure the I-V curve. The device was connected to a shunt resistor (1 M ) in series for current measurement. The LabVIEW program controlled DAQ system was exploited to apply voltages through the entire circuit and measure the voltage across the bridge circuit and the passing current. The current was calculated by measuring the voltage across the shunt resistor and dividing it by the resistance value.

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that the developed IL electrofluidic circuit-based presser sensor works as a linear measurement system due to the integrated Wheatstone bridge circuit. Further, the developed device can be seamlessly integrated into broadly adapted PDMS microfluidic systems without sophisticated fabrication and assembly processes.

CONCLUSION
This paper presents a novel pressure sensor based on IL electrofluidic circuit. The simple configuration makes the device capable of being seamlessly integrated to wide varieties of PDMS microfluidic devices. The experimental results demonstrate that IL-filled microfluidic channels can be utilized as electrical resistors to construct functional circuits, and an electrofluidic Wheatstone bridge circuit has been designed to construct the pressure sensor. In the pressure sensor performance characterization, the calibration results show that the gate voltage is linear proportional to the applied pressure with sensitivity of 8.45 mV/psi and the pressure as small as 2.5 psi can be easily detected. Furthermore, in the liquid pressure measurement, the gate voltage is also linear to the flow rate of water, and the pressure sensor has been verified to have the resolution of 0.63 psi pressure drop in the liquid phase. The experimental results successfully demonstrate that the developed pressure sensor with the IL Wheatstone bridge circuit provides a linear measurement system with stable and sensitive electrical readout. In conclusion, the high performance and great characteristics make the developed pressure sensor being promising for building next-generation integrated microfluidic systems.

Figure 4. I-V curve measurement results of the ionic liquid electrofluidic Wheatstone bridge. The calculated electrical resistance of the entire circuit (or each resistor) is approximately 1.787 M.

Figure 5. Calibration results of the device using pressurized nitrogen gas with pressure range of 0 ~ 30 psi.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by National Science Council in Taiwan (99-2218-E-001-003), and the Academia Sinica Research Program on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

REFERENCES
[1] A. J. DeMello, Control and Detection of Chemical Reactions in Microfluidic Systems, Nature, vol. 442, pp. 394-402, 2006. [2] K. Chung et al., Multiplex Pressure Mmeasurement in Microsystems Using Volume Displacement of Particle Suspensions, Lab Chip, vol. 9, pp.3345-3353, 2009. [3] L. Wang et al., Polydimethylsiloxane-integratable Micropressure Sensor for Microfluidic Chips, Biomicrofluidics, vol. 3, pp. 034105-+, 2009. [4] M. A. Unger et al., Monolithic Microfabricated Valves and Pumps by Multilayer Soft Lithography, Science, vol. 228, pp. 113-116, 2000. [5] E. O. Doebelin, Measurement Systems - Application and Design, McGrawHill, U.S.A., 5th Edn., Ch. 10, pp837-843, 2003. [6] W. Gu et al., Multiplexed Hydraulic Valve Actuation Using Ionic Liquid Filled Soft Channels and Braille Displays, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 90, pp. 03350-+, 2007.

Figure 6. Measurement results of the device while injecting water into the fluidic channel with flow rate range of 0 ~ 100 l/min. was linearly proportional to the flow rates of the fluid. The gate voltage is also proportional to the pressure; thus, the pressure is proportional to the flow rate, which agrees with the theoretical prediction of laminar flow inside the fluid channel. In summary, the experimental results confirmed

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