• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2014

In this study, we fabricate an integrated microfluidic chip with a planar Hall effect (PHE) sensor for single magnetic bead detection. The PHE sensor was constructed with a junction size of $10{\mu}m{\times}10{\mu}m$ using a trilayer structure of Ta(3 nm)/NiFe(10 nm)/Cu(1.2 nm)/IrMn(10 nm)/Ta(3 nm). The sensitivity of the PHE sensor was 19.86 ${\mu}V/Oe$. A diameter of 8.18 ${\mu}m$ magnetic beads was used, of which the saturation magnetization was ~2.1 emu/g. The magnetic susceptibility ${\chi}$ of these magnetic beads was calculated to be ~0.14. The diluted magnetic beads solution was introduced to the microfluidic channel attributing a single bead flow and simultaneously the PHE sensor voltage was measured to be 0.35 ${\mu}V$. The integrated microchip was able to detect a magnetic moment of $1.98{\times}10^{-10}$ emu.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.827-828
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• 2012

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.302-307
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• 2012

We have designed, fabricated and tested an integrated microfluidic chip with a Planar Hall Effect (PHE) sensor. The sensor was constructed by sequentially sputtering Ta/NiFe/Cu/NiFe/IrMn/Ta onto glass. The microfluidic channel was fabricated with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) using soft lithography. Magnetic nanoparticles suspended in hexadecane were used as ferrofluid, of which the saturation magnetisation was 3.4 emu/cc. Droplets of ferrofluid were generated in a T-junction of a microfluidic channel after hydrophilic modification of the PDMS. The size and interval of the droplets were regulated by pressure on the ferrofluid channel inlet. The PHE sensor detected the flowing droplets of ferrofluid, as expected from simulation results. The shape of the signal was dependent on both the distance of the magnetic droplet from the sensor and the droplet length. The sensor was able to detect a magnetic moment of $2{\times}10^{-10}$ emu at a distance of 10 ${\mu}m$. This study provides an enhanced understanding of the magnetic parameters of ferrofluid in a microfluidic channel using a PHE sensor and will be used for a sample inlet module inside of integrated magnetic lab-on-a-chip systems for the analysis of biomolecules.