Ultra-Low-Cost Integrated Silicon-based Transducer for On-Site, Genetic Detection of Pathogens

Estefania Nunez-Bajo; Michael Kasimatis; Yasin Cotur; Tarek Asfour; Alex Collins; Ugur Tanriverdi; Max Grell; Matti Kaisti; Guglielmo Senesi; Karen Stevenson; Firat Guder

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.23.002931 doi: bioRxiv preprint 6 advanced semiconductor foundry. Hence it is resilient to disruptions in the global supply chain as the devices can be produced anywhere in the world. To achieve cleanroom-free, low-cost fabrication, we have developed a series of fabrication methodologies based on wet etching to form porous Silicon, electroplating, thermal bonding and laser-cutting ( Figure 1A ). To reduce costs and complexity, TriSilix exploits the intrinsic properties of the semiconductor Si which can be used as a resistive heating device and thermistor simultaneously. TriSilix has three modes of operation: i) electrical (Joule) heater, ii) thermistor with a negative temperature coefficient that can provide the precise temperature of the sample solution during reaction and iii) label-free electrochemical sensor for detecting target NA with methylene blue as a redox-active reporter. TriSilix works with both cyclic and isothermal methods of amplification. We demonstrate that TriSilix can detect NA from both bacteria (Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis) and viruses (SARS-CoV-2) with high specificity.