Fabrication of quartz microchips with optical slit and development of a linear imaging UV detector for microchip electrophoresis systems.

We have developed quartz microchips for electrophoresis and a linear imaging UV detector along with the microchip. The microchips have an optical slit, which cut off the stray light in order to improve the sensitivity of UV absorption detection on the chip, at the bonding interface. They have been successfully fabricated on synthesized quartz glass substrates using the hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution bonding method. The signal level of UV absorption detection was effectively improved by applying microchips with the "on-chip" optical slit. It is also possible to improve the signal-to-noise ratio by repetitive scanning of linear photodiode array located along the separation channel, and signal averaging during elimination of the potential. Furthermore, the analysis may be performed until the separation of the target component is complete, because the real-time migration pattern of each component in the sample can be seen just as in a slab-gel electrophoresis, thus enabling a shorter analysis time.