Analyzing Single Giant Unilamellar Vesicles With a Slotline-Based RF Nanometer Sensor

Journal Article · Fri Mar 11 00:00:00 EST 2016 · IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2016.2536021· OSTI ID:1339262

Cui, Yan ^[1]; Kenworthy, Anne K. ^[2]; Edidin, Michael ^[3]; Divan, Ralu ^[4]; Rosenmann, Daniel ^[4]; Wang, Pingshan ^[1]

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1. Clemson Univ., SC (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2. Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States). Dept. of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
3. Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States). Dept. of Biology
4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials

Novel techniques that enable reagent free detection and analysis of single cells are of great interest for the development of biological and medical sciences, as well as point-of-care health service technologies. Highly sensitive and broadband RF sensors are promising candidates for such a technique. In this paper, we present a highly sensitive and tunable RF sensor, which is based on interference processes and built with a 100-nm slotline structure. The highly concentrated RF fields, up to ~ 1.76×10⁷ V/m, enable strong interactions between giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) and fields for high-sensitivity operations. We also provide two modeling approaches to extract cell dielectric properties from measured scattering parameters. GUVs of different molecular compositions are synthesized and analyzed with the RF sensor at ~ 2, ~ 2.5, and ~ 2.8 GHz with an initial |S₂₁|_min of ~ -100 dB. Corresponding GUV dielectric properties are obtained. Finally, a one-dimensional scanning of single GUV is also demonstrated.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Clemson Univ., SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Inst. of Health (NIH) (United States)
• Contributing Organization: Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States); Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357; 1K25GM100480-01A1
• OSTI ID: 1339262
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 64, Issue 4; ISSN 0018-9480
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Complex dielectric permittivity
conformal mapping
giant unilamellar vesicles
microfluidics
microwave sensor