Fabrication of high-aspect-ratio amorphous perfluorinated polymer structure for total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy

A method to fabricate microstructures that are ideal for optical applications was developed. This method enabled structures with a high aspect ratio to be fabricated from an amorphous perfluorinated polymer, CYTOP, which has an identical refractive index to that of water. Using the method, a microwell array device was developed for the purpose of high-throughput protein quantification. Evaluation of the optical properties of the array using total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy demonstrated that the device did not interfere with TIRF imaging at the bottom of each microwell. This method can expand the possible applications of biophotonic devices as well as TIRF imaging.