SiPM as miniaturised optical biosensor for DNA-microarray applications

A miniaturized optical biosensor for low-level fluorescence emitted by DNA strands labelled with CY5 is showed. Aim of this work is to demonstrate that a Si-based photodetector, having a low noise and a high sensitivity, can replace traditional detection systems in DNA-microarray applications. The photodetector used is a photomultiplier (SiPM), with 25 pixels. It exhibits a higher sensitivity than commercial optical readers and we experimentally found a detection limit for spotted dried samples of ∼1 nM. We measured the fluorescence signal in different operating conditions (angle of analysis, fluorophores concentrations, solution volumes and support). Once fixed the angle of analysis, for s…