CEA-Leti, Minatec Campus, Grenoble, 38054, France.
Lab Chip. 2013 Dec 7;13(23):4517-24. doi: 10.1039/c3lc50850a.
This article reports an original concept enabling the rapid fabrication of continuous-flow microfluidic chips with a programmable and reconfigurable geometry. The concept is based on a digital microfluidic platform featuring an array of individually addressable electrodes. A selection of electrodes is switched on sequentially to create a de-ionized (DI) water finger specific pattern, while the surrounding medium consists of liquid-phase paraffin. The water displacement is induced by both electrowetting on dielectric and liquid dielectrophoresis phenomena. Once the targeted DI water pattern is obtained, the chip temperature is lowered by turning on an integrated thermoelectric cooler, forming channel structures made of solidified paraffin with edges delimitated by the DI water pattern. As a result, the chip can be used afterwards to conduct in-flow continuous microfluidic experiments. This process is resettable and reversible by heating up the chip to melt the paraffin and reconfigure the microchannel design on demand, offering the advantages of cost, adaptability, and robustness. This paper reports experimental results describing the overall concept, which is illustrated with typical and basic fluidic geometries.
本文提出了一种可快速制作具有可编程和可重构几何形状的连续流微流控芯片的全新概念。该概念基于一种具有独立寻址电极阵列的数字微流控平台。通过顺序开启部分电极，创建特定图案的去离子（DI）水指，而周围的介质则为液态石蜡。通过电润湿和液体介电泳现象，引发水流置换。一旦获得目标 DI 水图案，通过开启集成热电冷却器降低芯片温度，形成由凝固石蜡制成的通道结构，边缘由 DI 水图案限定。结果，芯片可以用于进行后续的连续微流控实验。通过加热芯片将石蜡融化并按需重新配置微通道设计，该过程可重置且可逆，具有成本、适应性和鲁棒性方面的优势。本文报告了描述整体概念的实验结果，其中展示了典型和基本的流体几何形状。
