Free-flow electrophoresis on an anodic bonded glass microchip

A micro-free-flow electrophoresis chip has been fabricated into a glass wafer etched with 20-mu m-deep channels. Wafers were bonded anodically using an intermediate amorphous silicon film. Electric fields as high as 283 V/cm were applied across the separation channel to obtain baseline resolution of fluorescent standards in 4.8 s. The effect of electric fields ranging from 0 to 283 V/cm on the separations and resulting resolutions were examined. Resolution was shown to increase linearly with the applied electric field. Joule heating was not significant under the conditions tested. Instead, the generation of electrolysis products at higher currents proved to be the limiting factor preventing higher separation potentials from being used.