Grating-coupled silver nanoparticle arrays for point-of-care PCR platform

초록

Point-of-care (POC) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) devices are essential for rapid and cost-effective infectious disease diagnostics, overcoming the limitations of traditional laboratory PCR, which requires trained personnel. Photonic PCR, utilizing photothermal effects, offers non-contact heating, cooling, and ultrafast amplification. However, the scalability of photothermal substrate fabrication remains a challenge. In this work, we present grating-coupled silver nanoparticle arrays for POC PCR platforms. Silver nanoparticles array following the replica grating structure were deposited in situ via reduction of silver salt, offering a cost-effective and efficient photothermal substrate. The unique optical properties of the grating-coupled silver nanoparticle arrays showed tunable plasmonic resonance and high reflectance, improving fluorescence measurement. In addition, we found the silver film thickness to be an important factor in optimizing photothermal heating. The photonic PCR system successfully amplified SARS-CoV-2 RNA in under 10 minutes, demonstrating its potential for scalable, rapid disease diagnostics.

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