Optofluidic microscope: a complete on-chip imaging device

This paper reports a complete on-chip high resolution lensless imaging device based on the optofluidic microscopy method, which can form a vital optical microscopy component in a wide range of lab-on-a-chip systems. This imaging device does not use any lens elements and yet is capable of resolution comparable to that of a conventional microscope with a 20× objective. We demonstrate the use of the device for Caenorhabditis elegans and microsphere imaging at a resolution of ~ 1 μm with an imaging time of ~2 sec. The fabrication of this on-chip imaging device is fully compatible with existing semiconductor and microfluidic technologies, so the device can be massively fabricated and integrated into microsystems to form compact and low-cost total analysis systems for biological and colloidal studies.