We report the fabrication of high quality monolithically integrated optical long-pass filters, for use in disposable diagnostic microchips. The filters were prepared by incorporating dye molecules directly into the microfluidic chip substrate, thereby providing a fully integrated solution that removes the usual need for discrete optical filters. In brief, lysochrome dyes were added to a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) monomer prior to moulding of the microchip from a structured SU-8 master. Optimum results were obtained using 1 mm layers of PDMS doped with 1200 microg mL(-1) Sudan II, which resulted in less than 0.01% transmittance below 500 nm (OD 4), >80% above 570 nm, and negligible autofluorescence. These spectral characteristics compare favourably with commercially available Schott-glass long-pass filters, indicating that high quality optical filters can be straightforwardly integrated into the form of PDMS microfluidic chips. The filters were found to be robust in use, showing only slight degradation after extended illumination and negligible dye leaching after prolonged exposure to aqueous solutions. The provision of low cost high quality integrated filters represents a key step towards the development of high-sensitivity disposable microfluidic devices for point-of-care diagnostics.

The good quality CuInGaSe 2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells were fabricated on molybdenum metal coated soda lime glass substrate. Three-stage co-evaporation method was utilized for the fabrication of high quality p-type CIGS thin film absorber layer. Further, n-type CdS layer, high resistive intrinsic ZnO layer and transparent conducting AlZnO layers were fabricated by CBD method and vacuum sputtering methods. We made three various top metal sandwich grid patterns, i.e. Al, Al/Cu and Cu/Al which were utilized to investigate the metal sandwich layer oriented efficiency enhancement superiority on CuInGaSe 2 thin film solar cells. The investigated specific CIGS solar cell device efficiency with respect to various top metal grid sandwich patterns is presented and discussed.