Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

Flow control for capillary-pumped microfluidic systems

T Vestad1, D W M Marr1 and J Oakey1,2

Show affiliations


Advantages of performing analytical and diagnostic tasks in microfluidic-based systems include small sample volume requirements, rapid transport times and the promise of compact, portable instrumentation. The application of such systems in home and point-of-care situations has been limited, however, because these devices typically require significant associated hardware to initiate and control fluid flow. Capillary-based pumping can address many of these deficiencies by taking advantage of surface tension to pull fluid through devices. The development of practical instrumentation however will rely upon the development of precision control schemes to complement capillary pumping. Here, we introduce a straightforward, robust approach that allows for reconfigurable fluid guidance through otherwise fixed capillary networks. This technique is based on the opening and closing of microfluidic channels cast in a flexible elastomer via automated or even manual mechanical actuation. This straightforward approach can completely and precisely control flows such as samples of complex fluids, including whole blood, at very high resolutions according to real-time user feedback. These results demonstrate the suitability of this technique for portable, microfluidic instruments in laboratory, field or clinical diagnostic applications.


PACS

47.85.Np Fluidics

85.85.+j Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) and devices

87.80.Fe Micromanipulation of biological structures

47.85.L- Flow control

47.60.-i Flow phenomena in quasi-one-dimensional systems

Subjects

Fluid dynamics

Electronics and devices

Instrumentation and measurement

Medical physics

Biological physics

Nanoscale science and low-D systems

Dates

Issue 11 (November 2004)

Received 19 March 2004, in final form 7 June 2004

Published 9 August 2004



  1. Flow control for capillary-pumped microfluidic systems

    T Vestad et al 2004 J. Micromech. Microeng. 14 1503

  2. Dependence of strong-field photoelectron angular distributions on molecular orientation

    A Jaroń-Becker et al 2003 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 36 L375

  3. Significance of ghost orbit bifurcations in semiclassical spectra

    T Bartsch et al 1999 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 32 3013

  4. Robust vetoes for gravitational-wave burst triggers using known instrumental couplings

    P Ajith et al 2006 Class. Quantum Grav. 23 5825

  5. Integrability and exact spectrum of a pairing model for nucleons

    Jon Links et al 2002 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 35 6459

  6. Convolution of multifractals and the local magnetization in a random-field Ising chain

    Thomas Nowotny and Ulrich Behn 2001 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 34 8057

  7. A dye-sensitized nano-porous solid-state photovoltaic cell

    K Tennakone et al 1995 Semicond. Sci. Technol. 10 1689

  8. An investigation of annealing on the dielectric performance of TiO2 thin films

    Wenli Yang et al 2006 Semicond. Sci. Technol. 21 1573

  9. Geometry and Hamiltonian mechanics on discrete spaces

    V Talasila et al 2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 9705

  10. Large deformation three-dimensional image registration in image-guided radiation therapy

    Mark Foskey et al 2005 Phys. Med. Biol. 50 5869

Users also read

What's this?
This innovative new feature generates a list of articles 'also read' by other users based on them reading the original article. Article abstracts citations and references are all considered and weighted accordingly. We hope that this will help you find relevant papers for your research.

  1. A microfluidic nanoliter mixer with optimized grooved structures driven by capillary pumping

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.