Electric field pulse assisted covalent immobilization and hybridization of DNA in the nanosecond time scale for genetic information analysis

In this work, the use of a single square voltage pulse, resulting in the selective covalent bonding of DNA probes onto a treated thin film surface deposited on a plastic substrate at significantly higher rates, is presented. Covalent bonding occurs with only 100 ns of pulse duration, representing a 10 order of magnitude decrease in immobilization time from the 2 hours needed without electric field. The probes immobilized using this technique were successfully hybridized with a complementary DNA strand. This confirmed that the probe molecules were correctly oriented and were not damaged during the immobilization process. The duration and voltage level of the pulse used are compatible with silicon microelectronics circuits.