Microfluidic integration of wirebonded microcoils for on-chip applications in nuclear magnetic resonance

We present an integrated microfluidic device for on-chip nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of microscopic samples. The devices are fabricated by means of a MEMS compatible process, which joins the automatic wirebond winding of solenoidal microcoils and the manufacturing of a complex microfluidic network using dry-photoresist lamination. The wafer-scale cleanroom process is potentially capable of mass fabrication. Since the non-invasive NMR analysis technique is rather insensitive, particularly when microscopic sample volumes are to be investigated, we also focus on the optimization of the wirebonded microcoil for this purpose. The on-chip measurement of NMR signals from a 20 nl sample are evaluated for imaging analysis of microparticles, as well as for spectroscopy. Whereas the latter revealed that the sensitivity of the MEMS microcoil is comparable with hand-wound devices and achieves a full-width-half-maximum linewidth of 8 Hz, the imaging experiment demonstrated 10 mu m isotropic spatial resolution within an experiment time of 38 min for a 3D image with a field of view of 1 mm x 1 mm x 0.5 mm (500 000 voxels).