Chip-Based Measurements of Brownian Relaxation of Magnetic Beads Using a Planar Hall Effect Magnetic Field Sensor

We present a simple 'click-on' fluidic system with integrated electrical contacts, which is suited for electrical measurements on chips in microfluidic systems. We show that microscopic magnetic field sensors based on the planar Hall effect can be used for detecting the complex magnetic response using only the self-field arising from the bias current applied to the sensors as excitation field. We present measurements on a suspension of magnetic beads with a nominal diameter of 250 nm vs. temperature and find that the observations are consistent with the Cole-Cole model for Brownian relaxation with a constant hydrodynamic bead diameter when the temperature dependence of the viscosity of water is taken into account. These measurements demonstrate the feasibility of performing measurements of the Brownian relaxation response in a lab-on-a-chip system and constitute the first step towards an integrated biosensor based on the detection of the dynamic response of magnetic beads.