A perspective of active microfluidic platforms as an enabling tool for applications in other fields

Hébert, Marie; Huissoon, Jan P.; Ren, Carolyn L.

doi:10.1088/1361-6439/ac545f

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 215 publications

(222 reference statements)

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“…Active platforms are envisioned to palliate the robustness issues of certain microfluidic platform (Zhang et al 2021, Hebert et al 2022) because they normally work with simple geometries, which largely reduces the risks of fabrication defects and the need to balance flow resistance of a complex channel network involving droplets. Moreover, the active components handle microfluidic-related knowledge.…”

Section: Microfluidic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

A quantitative study of the dynamic response of compliant microfluidic chips in a microfluidics context

Hébert

Huissoon

Ren

2022

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a widely used material for microfluidic devices due to its low cost, superior optical properties and fast iterative design process. Its softness however creates challenges for the device design and operation because part of the applied pressures contributes to deform chips instead of controlling the flow. The resulting dynamic behaviour is often ignored in passive microfluidic that focuses on the static behaviour of the chip, however, can cause low accuracy to active microfluidic that actuates flow frequently. Therefore, understanding the dynamic behaviour of microfluidic devices due to material compliance is of fundamental and practical importance. In this study, the microfluidic chip compliance is carefully considered by separating it from the sample tubing compliance. The capacitance is retrieved by assuming a symmetric RC circuit based on the experimentally determined time constant and chip resistance. The experimental capacitance is compared to a theoretical formula for chip designs with different height-to-width ratios and height-to-length ratios and for various fluids. The accuracy is within one order of magnitude that is much closer than previous approximations.

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Section: Microfluidic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

A quantitative study of the dynamic response of compliant microfluidic chips in a microfluidics context

Hébert

Huissoon

Ren

2022

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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“…Many research groups are already developing new and innovative methods for DNA optical mapping on a fluidic LOC [3][4][5]. Many of these works use active controls like pressure or electrophoresis to move the liquid and the molecules in their fluidic devices [6]. The advantage of actively controlled devices is that external forces can be applied to manipulate or direct biomolecules in a specific direction, to separate them, or even to guide them against entropy into strong confinement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow Behavior Characterization of DNA Molecules in Passive Nanofluidic Devices†

Esmek,

Grzybeck,

Nasri

et al. 2024

IEEJ Transactions Elec Engng

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This work aims to develop a method for analyzing the dynamic flow of single DNA molecules through nanochannels in fluidic chip which work passively. For this purpose, a two‐laser system was used, which is coupled into a fluorescence microscope and can detect labeled DNA molecules using a single photon counter for signal read‐out in real‐time. The two laser spots are focused at different points of the nanochannel, and can be used to obtain the speed and molecular extension of the DNA. For example, a velocity of 1.82 μm/ms and a spatial extension of 0.9 μm were determined for pUC18/19 DNA (2686 bp) in a nanochannel with a width and depth of 200 nm × 100 nm and a length of 10 μm. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.

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“…Active flow control is used in many applications, such as biomedical healthcare [ 3 ], food industry [ 4 ], inkjet printing [ 5 ], therapeutics [ 6 ], and soft robotics [ 7 ]. When compared to passive flow control, active flow control may provide greater control over the flow rate, a more precise flow, and closed-loop control [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Reciprocating pumps are one of the preferred pump types in active flow control for the delivery of gases and low-viscosity liquids (~1 mPa·s, e.g., water) [ 11 , 12 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow Ripple Reduction in Reciprocating Pumps by Multi-Phase Rectification

Özkayar,

Wang,

Lötters

et al. 2023

Sensors

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Reciprocating piezoelectric micropumps enable miniaturization in microfluidics for lab-on-a-chip applications such as organs-on-chips (OoC). However, achieving a steady flow when using these micropumps is a significant challenge because of flow ripples in the displaced liquid, especially at low frequencies or low flow rates (<50 µL/min). Although dampers are widely used for reducing ripples in a flow, their efficiency depends on the driving frequency of the pump. Here, we investigated multi-phase rectification as an approach to minimize ripples at low flow rates by connecting piezoelectric micropumps in parallel. The efficiency in ripple reduction was evaluated with an increasing number (n) of pumps connected in parallel, each actuated by an alternating voltage waveform with a phase difference of 2π/n (called multi-phase rectification) at a chosen frequency. We introduce a fluidic ripple factor (), which is the ratio of the root mean square () value of the fluctuations present in the rectified output to the average fluctuation-free value of the discharge flow, as a metric to express the quality of the flow. The fluidic ripple factor was reduced by more than 90% by using three-phase rectification when compared to one-phase rectification in the 2–60 μL/min flow rate range. Analytical equations to estimate the fluidic ripple factor for a chosen number of pumps connected in parallel are presented, and we experimentally confirmed up to four pumps. The analysis shown can be used to design a frequency-independent multi-phase fluid rectifier to the desired ripple level in a flow for reciprocating pumps.

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A perspective of active microfluidic platforms as an enabling tool for applications in other fields

Cited by 10 publications

References 215 publications

A quantitative study of the dynamic response of compliant microfluidic chips in a microfluidics context

A quantitative study of the dynamic response of compliant microfluidic chips in a microfluidics context

Flow Behavior Characterization of DNA Molecules in Passive Nanofluidic Devices†

Flow Ripple Reduction in Reciprocating Pumps by Multi-Phase Rectification

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