A simple approach for fabrication of optical affinity-based bioanalytical microsystem on polymeric PEN foils.

Herein, we report a novel concept of low-cost flexible platform for fluorescence-based biosensor. The surface of polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) foil was exposed to KrF excimer laser through a photolitographic contact mask. Laser initiated surface modification resulted in micro-patterned areas with surface functional groups available for localized covalent immobilization of biotin.

Surface Modification of Polymer Substrates for Biomedical Applications.

While polymers are widely utilized materials in the biomedical industry, they are rarely used in an unmodified state. Some kind of a surface treatment is often necessary to achieve properties suitable for specific applications. There are multiple methods of surface treatment, each with their own pros and cons, such as plasma and laser treatment, UV lamp modification, etching, grafting, metallization, ion sputtering and others.

Direct immobilization of biotin on the micro-patterned PEN foil treated by excimer laser.

Polymers with functionalized surfaces have attracted a lot of attention in the last few years. Due to the progress in the techniques of polymer micro-patterning, miniaturized bioanalytical assays and biocompatible devices can be developed. In the presented work, we performed surface modification of polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) foil by an excimer laser beam through a photolithographic contact mask.