A novel photolithographic method for fabrication of flexible micro-patterned glucose sensors

Abstract

We developed a new photolithographic method for introducing micro-patterned metal array onto flexible substrates without the substrates being affected by temperature, solvent, or UV exposure. We used SL-03, acrylate copolymer as a separation layer between glass carrier and metal pattern, and transferred the micropattern from the glass to a flexible substrate in the last step of the process. Through the developed micropatterning technology, we successfully fabricated the glucose sensor. The proposed glucose sensor has a LOD of 1.2 μM and a dynamic range from 0.05 to 0.30 mM, which covers the screening of diabetes in sweat. The sensor showed a good stability and reproducibility in mechanical deformation and continuous glucose monitoring conditions. In addition, miniaturized multiple glucose sensors were fabricated in limited area, which provided the exceptional accuracy (R2 ≈ 0.9978) compared to the mono glucose sensor. These results confirm that the proposed glucose sensors based on new photolithographic method are highly promising for application as healthcare sensors such as continuous glucose level monitoring on a flexible devices.