Fabrication of a biochip for percent hemoglobin A1C (%HBA1C) level measurement

A disposable biochip for measuring HbA1c level in blood was designed and fabricated, in which a pair of interdigitated array electrodes, an integrated micropump, and a microchannel were realized as one-chip integration. HbA1c is glycosylated hemoglobin, formed when a hemoglobin in a red blood cell (RBC) attaches to a glucose, and the ratio of HbA1c to the hemoglobin (%HbA1c) represents the average glucose level for two or three months of life span of RBC compared to the fluctuating glucose level. Thus, %HbA1c is more useful as well as accurate in monitoring glucose level for diabetics. In this paper, transporting blood suspension with an integrated micropump, determining a condition for blood lysis, and filtering beads used for immobilizing HbA1c were carried out.