Integrated OLED as excitation light source in fluorescent lateral flow immunoassays

The integration of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) as excitation light sources for quantum dot-based fluorescent lateral flow immunoassay systems (LFIA) was investigated. This approach has the potential to deliver a sensitive visible detection scheme for low-cost, disposable lab-on-chip point-of-care (POC) diagnosis system. Thin film phosphorescent green OLEDs fabricated on plastic substrates were integrated on-chip to excite the test line of a quantum dot-based LFIA (QD-LFIA). OLEDs were fabricated by sequential deposition of organic thin films (total of ~100 nm) onto ITO-coated PET substrates. CdSe/ZnS QDs emitting at 655 nm and Au nanoparticles (NP - 10 nm size) conjugated antibodies were used for the fluorescence QD-LFIA and conventional reflection-mode Au NP-LFIA, respectively. Thin plastic color light filters were integrated for filtering the excitation light source and, thereby, increasing the contrast of the emitted light for optimized visual detection. Integration of the OLED and color filters with the analytical membrane was achieved using adhesive techniques facilitated by the planar nature of the layers, which suggests possible large scale manufacturing using roll-to-roll processing. Gray scale analysis from digital images captured with a digital camera was used to quantify the visual sensitivity. The signal intensity, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the limit of detection (LOD) of OLED integrated QD-LFIAs were compared to Au NP LFIAs. OLED QD-LFIA exhibited superior performance in all signal aspects: 7-8× higher signal intensity and SNR, and a 7× lower LOD of 3 nM (measured at S/N=3). These results demonstrate the potential of OLED-integrated in LFIA devices for obtaining sensitive, fast and low-cost POC diagnostics.