Planar Microcoil Array Based Temperature-Controllable Lab-on-Chip Platform

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a planar microcoil array based temperature-controllable Lab-on-chip (LoC) platform for magnetic bead manipulation. Magnetic beads are used as the solid phase carriers of bioparticles and microcoil array acts as the scattered magnetic field source to manipulate the magnetic beads in microfluidics. Meanwhile, the Joule heat issue, which is inevitable and often considered a drawback of electromagnetic LoC applications, is analyzed and proved to be controllable using our proposed current supply method. With this method, microcoil can be used as a heat source to keep the temperature of microfluidic within the safe range for bioparticles, saving the external incubator. To verify the concept, a polyimide substrate LoC platform was fabricated and tested. Taking advantage of the commercially available process, it is standard and mass-producible. Experimental results show that both individual single bead and mass beads varying from 1 μm to 2 μm can be manipulated with acceptable current consumption, while temperature can be maintained in a safe range.