State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Lab Chip. 2024 Oct 9;24(20):4869-4878. doi: 10.1039/d4lc00630e.
Droplet microarrays (DMAs) leveraging wettability differences are instrumental in digital immunoassays, single-cell analysis, and high-throughput screening. This study introduces an enhanced Teflon lift-off process to fabricate hydrophilic-hydrophobic patterns on a digital microfluidic (DMF) chip, thereby integrating DMAs with DMF technology. By employing DMF for droplet manipulation and utilizing wettability differences, the automated generation of high-throughput DMAs was achieved. The volume of the microdroplets ranged from picoliters to nanoliters. For droplets with a diameter of 150 μm, the array density reached up to 1282 cm. We systematically investigated the influence of various DMF parameters on the formation of DMAs and applied this technique to particle distribution, achieving a single-cell isolation rate of approximately 30%. We believe that this method will be a potent tool to enhance the capabilities of DMAs and DMF technology and extend their applicability across more fields.
微滴阵列（DMAs）利用润湿性差异在数字免疫分析、单细胞分析和高通量筛选中发挥了重要作用。本研究提出了一种改进的聚四氟乙烯（Teflon）剥离工艺，在数字微流控（DMF）芯片上制造亲水-疏水图案，从而将 DMAs 与 DMF 技术集成。通过使用 DMF 进行液滴操作并利用润湿性差异，实现了高通量 DMAs 的自动化生成。微滴的体积范围从皮升到纳升。对于直径为 150 μm 的液滴，阵列密度高达 1282 cm。我们系统地研究了各种 DMF 参数对 DMAs 形成的影响，并将该技术应用于粒子分布，实现了约 30%的单细胞分离率。我们相信，这种方法将成为增强 DMAs 和 DMF 技术功能并将其应用扩展到更多领域的有力工具。
