Modular component design for portable microfluidic devices
Journal
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics
Journal Volume
10
Journal Issue
2
Pages
465-474
Date Issued
2011
Author(s)
Liou, DS
Hsieh, YF
Kuo, LS
Yang, CT
Chen, PH
Liou, Dar-Sun
Hsieh, Yi-Fan
Kuo, Long-Sheng
Yang, Chin-Ting
Chen, Ping-Hei
Abstract
A new modular design concept for microfluidic devices is proposed and demonstrated in this study. We designed three key modular microfluidic components: pumps, valves, and reservoirs, and demonstrated that a microfluidic device with specific functions can be easily assembled with those key modular components. Our pumps are man-powerable so that the assembled microfluidic devices require no any other power sources like expensive syringe pumps or air compressors. This feature makes the assembled microfluidic devices completely portable. We also combined our assembled device with other existing mixing microchannels to serve as the mixing and loading system in polymerase chain reaction experiment to amplify DNA successfully. This result shows that those modular components can be integrated into other microchannels, implying great potential applications of the modular design. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.
SDGs
Type
journal article