Electric microfluidic droplet dispenser

Abstract

The present invention provides an electric microfluidic droplet dispenser. The dispenser prints liquid in a microfluidic chip into droplets with uniform volume based on a principle of microfluidic impact printing, and controls the loading volume by utilizing the number of times of printing, in other words, the number of droplets. A liquid is pre-injected into a replaceable microfluidic chip, and an electronic control system is used to set and control the number of printing droplets. With adoption of the electric microfluidic droplet dispenser of the invention, the volume of an individual droplet is smaller, typically is 0.1 nanoliter to 10 nanoliters, and a single droplet volume CV value is less than 3.4%. When sub-microliter volume loading is performed by multiple printing, the average effect further reduces the random error. The microfluidic chip is made of polymer materials, and thus is low in cost and replaceable. The microfluidic chip is isolated from an actuator, therefore cleaning is not needed and no cross-contamination exists. The remaining volume of a liquid is less than 1 microliter, therefore waste is less. A single-chip microcomputer is used to control the number of printing droplets, therefore automatic printing and liquid distribution are achieved; and the electric microfluidic droplet dispenser can extract a liquid as well as dispense a liquid, and thus is diversified in functions.

Description

technical field [0001] The disclosure belongs to the technical field of experimental instruments, and in particular relates to an electric microfluidic droplet dispenser, which is used for quantitative sampling, distribution and extraction of liquids. Background technique [0002] Liquid dispenser and pipette are hand-held instruments commonly used in biological and chemical laboratories to pipette a small amount of liquid. Their main working principle is to complete the transfer of liquid through the suction and extrusion of the piston: suction and discharge. This kind of pipette is also called "air displacement pipette", which uses the displacement of the sealed air cushion in the piston to suck and discharge the liquid. The original principle was proposed by Heinrich Schnitger as early as 1957 And applied for a patent. A series of patented technologies later created the basic structure and form of the modern pipette, such as the US patent "Pipettingsystem" (patent number:...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0005] In order to solve the problem of excessive errors of existing dispensers / pipettors when operating smaller volumes of liquids, and realize the function of microfluidic droplet dispensers with the function of pumping liquids, this disclosure proposes a microfluidic printing-based electric Microfluidic droplet dispenser realizes liquid suction and liquid distribution, and can achieve sub-nano upgrade resolution

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