Biochips (DNA chips and Protein chips).

What is a Biochip?
A biochip is a set of diminished microarrays that are placed on a strong substrate that allows many experiments to be executed at the same time to obtain a high throughput in less time. This device contains millions of sensor elements or biosensors. Not like microchips, these are not electronic devices. Each and every biochip can be considered as a microreactor that can detect a particular analyte like an enzyme, protein, DNA, biological molecule or antibody. The main function of this chip is to perform hundreds of biological reactions in a few seconds like decoding genes (a sequence of DNA).

Working Principle of a Biochip:
The working of Biochip mainly includes the following steps.

• Step1: The operator generates a low-power electromagnetic field through radio signals
• Step2: The fixed biochip gets turn on
• Step3: The activated chip transmits the identification code reverse to the operator through radio signals
• Step4: Reader strengthens the received code to change it into digital form and finally exhibits it on LCD.

Components of BioChips

• The Biochip comprises two components namely the transponder as well as reader.

1) Transponder

• Transponders are two types’ namely active transponder and passive transponder. This is a passive transponder which means that it doesn’t contain any of its own energy or battery whereas in passive, it is not active until the operator activates it by giving it a low electrical charge. This transponder consists of four parts such as antenna coil, computer microchip, glass capsule, and a tuning capacitor.
• The computer microchip stores a unique identification (UID) number that ranges from 10 digits to 15 digits long.
• The antenna coil is very small, primitive and this type of antenna is used to send and receive the signals from the scanner or reader.
• The charging of the tuning capacitor can be done with the small signal i.e, 1/1000 of a watt which is sent by the operator.
• The glass capsule holds the antenna coil, capacitor, and microchip, and it is made with a biocompatible material namely soda lime glass.

2) Reader

• The reader comprises of a coil namely “exciter” and it forms an electromagnetic field through radio signals. It offers the required energy (<1/1000 of a watt) to activate the biochip.  The reader carries a receiving coil for receiving the ID number or transmitted code sent back from the excited implanted biochip.

Types of BioChips

There are three types of Biochips available namely DNA microarray, microfluidic chip, and protein microarray.

DNA microarray

Dna microarray (dna chips) from Rachana Tiwari

MICROARRAY from Sanjay Sinhmar

protein microarray.

Protein micro array from krupa sagar