title: High throughput and high yield nanofabrication of precisely designed gold nanohole arrays for fluorescence enhanced detection of biomarkers.
abstract: Fluorescence excitation enhancement by plasmonic nanostructures such as gold nanohole arrays has been a hot topic in biosensing and bioimaging in recent years. However, the high throughput and high yield fabrication of precisely designed metal nanostructures for optimized fluorescence excitation remains a challenge. Our work is the first report combining nanopattern nickel mould fabrication and UV imprinting for gold nanostructure mass fabrication in high yield. We report our successful gold nanohole array mass fabrication on a 4'' glass wafer, by first fabricating a high fidelity nickel mould, then using the mould for UV nanoimprinting on a polymer coated on the glass, evaporating the gold film on the glass wafer, and lifting off the polymer to obtain a gold nanohole array on the glass. Our optimized process for wafer fabrication can achieve almost 100% yield from nanoimprinting to gold lift-off, while the fabricated nickel mould has >70% defect-free area with the rest having a few scattered defects. In our work, the size and pitch of the gold nanohole array are designed to enhance the fluorescent dye Alexa 647. When the fabricated gold nanohole array is used for prostate specific antigen (PSA) detection by establishing a sandwiched fluorescence assay on the gold surface, a detection limit of 100 pg ml(-1) is achieved, while with a same thickness of gold film, only 1 ng ml(-1) is detected.
authors: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), Singapore.
authors: Ten It
authors: TI
authors: Wong
authors: Shan
authors: S
authors: Han
authors: Lin
authors: L
authors: Wu
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Deng
authors: Christina Yuan Ling
authors: CY
authors: Tan
authors: Ping
authors: P
authors: Bai
authors: Yee Chong
authors: YC
authors: Loke
authors: Xin Da
authors: XD
authors: Yang
authors: Man Siu
authors: MS
authors: Tse
authors: Sum Huan
authors: SH
authors: Ng
authors: Xiaodong
authors: X
authors: Zhou
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay; D008297:Male; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006046:Gold; D009532:Nickel; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen