Hydrophilic-treated plastic plates for wide-range analysis of Giemsa-stained red blood cells and automated Plasmodium infection rate counting

Muneaki Hashimoto¹, Shouki Yatsushiro¹, Shohei Yamamura¹, Masato Tanaka¹, Hirokazu Sakamoto^1,3, Yusuke Ido¹, Kazuaki Kajimoto¹, Mika Bando², Jun‑ichi Kido² and Masatoshi Kataoka^1
1Health Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 2217‑14, Hayashi‑cho, Takamatsu, Kagawa 761‑0301, Japan.
²Department of Periodontology and Endodontology, Institute of Health Biosciences, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, Institute of Health Biosciences, 3‑18‑15 Kuramoto, Tokushima 770‑8504, Japan.
Malar J (2017) 16 321
As a new method of malaria diagnostics, the count of Plasmodium spp. cells in red blood cells (RBCs) using hydrophilic-treated cyclic olefn copolymer (COC) plates was proposed. Oxygen plasma treatment was applied to COC plates in order to modify the surface wettability to hydrophilic using Samco RIE etcher RIE-10NR.

Polymer surface modification is an essential technique to achieve surface wettability improvement and direct substrate bonding in microfluidics fabrication. We offer plasma cleaners and UV-ozone cleaners as well as plasma etching equipment for this application. The paper below shows long-term stable hydrophilic surfaces of polymer materials (PMMA, COC, COP and PEEK) using UV-ozone treatment technologies.
UV/ozone Surface Modification for Long-term Stable Hydrophilic Surface of Polymer Microfluidic Devices