Integration of optoelectronic components with ltcc (low temperature co-fired ceramic) microfluidic structure

Abstract

Investigations on integration of optoelectronic components with LTCC (low temperature co-fired ceramics) microfluidic module are presented. Design, fabrication and characterization of the ceramic structure for optical absorbance is described as well. The geometry of the microfluidic channels has been designed according to results of the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis. A fabricated LTCC-based microfluidic module consists of an U-shaped microchannel, two optical fibers and integrated light source (light emitting diode) and photodetector (light-to-voltage converter). Properties of the fabricated microfluidic system have been investigated experimentally. Several concentrations of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) in water were used for absorbance/transmittance measurements. The test has shown a linear detection range for various concentrations of heavy metal ions in distilled water. The fabricated microfluidic structure is found to be a very useful system in chemical analysis. © 2011 Polish Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.