Hybrid polymer fabrication process for electro-enzymatic glucose sensor

Abstract

We present a novel self-aligned and hybrid polymer fabrication process for an electro-enzymatic glucose sensor. The self-aligned fabrication process is performed using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a process substrate material, SU-8 as a sensor structural material, and gold as an electrode material. PDMS has many advantages as a process substrate over conventional substrates such as bare silicon or glass. During the fabrication process, SU-8 has good adhesion to the PDMS. However, after completion of all fabrication steps, the SU-8 based sensors can be easily peeled-off from the PDMS. The PDMS is prepared on a glass handle wafer, and is reusable for many process cycles. Such an SU-8 release technique from a PDMS substrate has never been proposed before. The novel process is employed to realize a glucose sensor with active and reference gold electrodes that are sandwiched between two SU-8 layers with contact pad openings and the active area opening to the top SU-8 layer. The enzyme glucose oxidase is immobilized within the confined active area opening to provide an active electrode sensing surface. After successful fabrication using the hybrid process, the overall thickness of the sensors is measured between 166.15 μm and 210.15 μm. The sensor area and the electrode area are 2mm x 3mm and 2mm x 2mm respectively. The resulting glucose sensors are mechanically flexible. A linear response is observed for the glucose sensors, typically between 50mg/dl and 600mg/dl glucose concentrations.