Apparatus for driving microfluid and driving method thereof

Abstract

An apparatus for driving microfluids is provided. The apparatus comprises a driving unit and a microfluidic chip. The driving unit comprises a substrate and a film, wherein the film is combined with the substrate. Moreover, the microfluidic chip is coupled with the driving unit.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus for driving the microfluid and the method thereof, and more particularly to an apparatus for driving the microfluid and the driving method thereof with the driving unit and the microfluidic system chip (or called the microfluidic chip) being manufactured separately. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] In recent decades, the microfluidic technology utilized in biomedical studies becomes popular because of the development and maturity of the Micro-electro-mechanical-systems. Whether the concept of Micro Total Analysis System (μTAS) for performing complex biochemical and / or chemical analyses on a microsystem chip or the concept of the Lab-on-a-chip for lessening the manipulations of a traditional lab on a chip are both developed based upon the integration of microfluidic technology. The relevant components including the microchannel, microprocessor, microvalve, micromixer, microseparator and fluid-driving unit a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] This application seeks to provide an apparatus and a method to drive a microfluid, which purposes ameliorating the various limitations of the current microfluid-driving configurations such as the manufacturing cost, the processing compatibility of the microfluidic chip and the limitation of the working fluids in use. The feature of the present invention lies in that the driving unit is manufactured separately from the microfluidic system chip to avoid the problems derived from constructing the driving unit on the microfluidic system chip. In the meantime, the mechanically moveable elements with highly manufacturing cost, such as a moveable film, designed in the driving unit can achieve the requests for decreasing the cost and increasing of the yield under the situation of the microfluidic system chip including no moveable structures. The driving unit and the microfluidic system chip are coupled with a flexible film existing in the driving unit, possessing the features of softness and conformal coverage, which enables rapid and temporary coupling of the driving unit with the microfluidic system chip during operation, and is advantageous for simplifying the coupling problem substantially and keeping well gastight effect to enable the pressure generated by the driving unit to be transmitted effectively to the microfluidic system chip. Besides, through the design of a partially film-movable area which can be operated multiply in accordance with different requests, the air cell generated by temporarily coupling is pressed or pulled so that a pressure change is generated to drive the working fluid. The microfluidic system chip does not include any moveable elements and / or power sources so that the apparatus for driving the microfluid and the driving method thereof are advantageous for low cost and disposability. Furthermore, the apparatus further has the advantages of small volume, simple design, easy operation and being programmable.

[0013] The film can be adhered to the substrate which has been perforated by micromachining or other machining techniques. Also, the substrate can be perforated by micromachining or other machining techniques after the film is adhered thereto to make the film expose. Because the film is flexible, the exposed film caused by the aperture on the substrate is a film-moveable area which is corresponding to the position of the pressure cavity on the microfluidic chip, and the portion of the film covering the substrate without the aperture is a film-immoveable area. The film-driving device is disposed in the film-movable area for driving the film. The driving device controlled by electricity can perform the single cyclic, the reciprocated and the programmable operations to cause a driving deformation of the film, which results in pressing or pulling the air cell formed via gastightly joint the film so as to generates a barometric change to drive the microfluid. The barometric change can accurately control the position of the microfluid and can be operated multiply in accordance with different requests.

[0016] The pressure cavity can be used as a fluid injection cavity, and the working fluids can be injected therein to raise the compression ratio of the air cell to increase the barometrically driving power of the driving fluids.

[0018] The driving unit and the microfluidic system chip in the present invention are designed separately and coupled with the conventional coupling device, so all of the working fluids would not directly contact the driving unit or contaminate reciprocally with the chip so that the driving unit can be used repeatedly. On the other hand, the microfluidic system chip does not include any moveable elements and / or power sources so it has the advantages of low cost and disposability. The size of the driving unit matches the microfluidic system chip, so the efficiency of driving is enhanced, and the volume and the manufacturing and operation cost of the elements is decreased. Besides, the present invention is simple for operation. The user just needs to inject the working fluids into the fluid injecting cavity of the chip and it can work with the driving unit without any other process, and the chip is easy to be separated from the driving unit after work.

Problems solved by technology

The fluid-driving technology plays a crucial role that although the microfluidic chip has the capacity of lessening an experimental process onto a microchip, the microfluid cannot be transmitted if it does not cooperate with an appropriate fluid-driving method.

Besides, different kinds of microfluids would not interact with each other or work in accordance with the requests of the chips, and thus the desired purpose would not be achieved.

Considering these driving methods, the required operating power or voltage is usually huge and is only suitable for few fluids, and the electric property, the pH value and the electrolyte of the fluid need to be considered.

Since the driver is directly mounted on the microfluidic chip, the manufacturing cost of the microfluidic chip increases relatively and the processes thereof are more complicated because of the compatibility, even decreasing the possibility of serving as the disposable chip.

Although this method is advantageous for separating the chip and the driving device, the cost, the volume and the control of the linear driver are still complicated.

Moreover, the chip integrated with a film usually attends the problems as the increase of the manufacturing cost and the decrease of the yield.

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