Peng Cheng, Ju Y Sungtaek
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, 38-137 K Eng IV, 420 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2017;1572:293-311. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-6911-1_20.
Portable microfluidic devices are promising for point-of-care (POC) diagnosis and bio- and environmental surveillance in resource-constrained or non-laboratory environments. Lateral-flow devices, some built off paper or strings, have been widely developed but the fixed layouts of their underlying wicking/microchannel structures limit their flexibility and present challenges in implementing multistep reactions. Digital microfluidics can circumvent these difficulties by addressing discrete droplets individually. Existing approaches to digital microfluidics, however, often require bulky power supplies/batteries and high voltage circuits. We present a scheme to drive digital microfluidic devices by converting mechanical energy of human fingers to electrical energy using an array of piezoelectric elements. We describe the integration our scheme into two promising digital microfluidics platforms: one based on the electro-wetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) phenomenon and the other on the electrophoretic control of droplet (EPD). Basic operations of droplet manipulations, such as droplet transport, merging and splitting, are demonstrated using the finger-powered digital-microfluidics.
便携式微流控设备在资源有限或非实验室环境中的即时护理（POC）诊断以及生物和环境监测方面具有广阔前景。横向流动设备，有些是基于纸张或纤维制成的，已经得到了广泛的发展，但其底层毛细作用/微通道结构的固定布局限制了它们的灵活性，并且在实施多步反应时面临挑战。数字微流控技术可以通过单独处理离散液滴来规避这些困难。然而，现有的数字微流控方法通常需要笨重的电源/电池和高压电路。我们提出了一种通过使用压电元件阵列将人类手指的机械能转换为电能来驱动数字微流控设备的方案。我们描述了将我们的方案集成到两个有前景的数字微流控平台中：一个基于介电电泳（EWOD）现象，另一个基于液滴的电泳控制（EPD）。使用手指驱动的数字微流控技术展示了液滴操作的基本操作，如液滴传输、合并和分裂。
