VTT and the UC Berkeley are developing more efficient diagnostics

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of California in Berkeley have begun a three-year project to address technology barriers in the field of low cost diagnostics. The target of the cooperation is to transfer micro-scale devices made on glass or silicon to analytical devices which are applicable for mass production by roll-to-roll printing.

Roll-to-roll printing technology will allow for a drastic reduction in price and increase in speed, which are necessities for large-scale utilisation of biochips in applications, e.g. in diagnostics, environment and food safety testing.

The challenges of this technology lie, for example, in creating multilayered structures with features in the range of tens of micrometers. The technology is part of VTT's strategic research activities in the field of intelligent printing.

Long-term and visiting scientists from VTT will be working at the Berkeley laboratory, and a VTT research team in Finland will be producing and assembling components. The components will be tested in Berkeley and finally produced at VTT.

VTT's aim is to facilitate collaboration between scientists and companies at Berkeley and Finland, and to produce new technologies and production processes for Finnish industries.