High-Frequency Interdigitated Array Electrode-Based Capacitive Biosensor for Protein Detection

This paper reports a study on developing of a protein detection biochip based on interdigitated array electrodes (IDAEs) capacitive immunosensor. The protein after being preconcentrated in a detection region will be selectively captured and detected by the capacitive immunosensor. Using electrical impedance spectroscopy operated at high-frequency in the range of 100 kHz-1 MHz, the capacitance of the gold electrode is determined and the antibody surface modification steps can be also monitored. The experiment results show the capacitance changes in accordance with the adding biochemical layer on gold electrodes for each step of the antibody surface modification. In particular, the total impedance operated at 1 MHz frequency has been seen to change from 2.1 k omega of bare chip (before antibody surface modification) to 8 k omega after antibody surface modification process while the serial capacitance is recorded to reduce steadily from 450 pF to 55 pF. Also, the efficiency of protein chip was investigated by implementing the measurement of 10 mu M BSA with and without preconcentration process. The measurement results have shown the sensitivity increasing significantly after the protein is preconcentrated in this chip. The results demonstrate high efficiency of protein detection can be achieved by operating high frequency capacitive measurement on IDAEs capacitive immunosensor.