Exorotatory magnetic driven centrifugal microfluidic chip and device suitable for distributed deployment

Abstract

This invention discloses an externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip and device suitable for distributed deployment. The centrifugal microfluidic chip of this invention includes a chip body (3) and a magnetic drive structure disposed on the chip body, the magnetic drive structure being arranged around the rotation center of the centrifugal microfluidic chip. The centrifugal microfluidic chip device includes the centrifugal microfluidic chip and a drive device module. The drive device module includes a stator disk (1), a rotating magnetic field drive control circuit (6), and a drive housing (5). Several coils (11) are disposed on the stator disk, and the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit can control all coils to generate a rotating magnetic field, allowing the centrifugal microfluidic chip to rotate under the action of the rotating magnetic field. The centrifugal microfluidic chip and device of this invention are implemented with a simple structure, requiring no large placement space.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a microfluidic actuation technology, and more particularly to an externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip and device suitable for distributed deployment. Background Technology

[0002] With the development of in vitro diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food safety testing, and public health surveillance, testing equipment is gradually shifting from centralized laboratory testing to distributed testing. In distributed deployment scenarios, testing equipment typically needs to be deployed in primary healthcare institutions, on-site testing points, mobile testing platforms, or portable testing terminals. These application scenarios place higher demands on the size, weight, and structural compactness of the equipment. Microfluidic chips, also known as laboratory-on-a-chip (COPC) devices, are a technology platform for manipulating fluids at the micrometer scale. By constructing microchannels, reaction chambers, and valves on a chip, they achieve precise control and analysis of trace amounts of fluids.

[0003] Centrifugal microfluidics is an important branch of microfluidics technology. It utilizes centrifugal force as the core driving force for fluid flow, enabling complex sample processing procedures on a rotating disk-shaped centrifugal microfluidic chip. It shows great promise for applications in distributed rapid detection.

[0004] The key component for realizing centrifugal microfluidics is the rotation drive system, which currently mainly uses micro motor systems to directly drive centrifugal microfluidic chips.

[0005] The centrifugal microfluidic chip and the micromotor system are combined to form a hybrid device, which is called a centrifugal microfluidic chip device for ease of description.

[0006] The main problem at present is:

[0007] Currently, the micro-motor system used to drive the rotation of centrifugal microfluidic chips has a relatively complex structure, including motors, bearings, turntables, clips or dedicated rotating platforms, etc. Moreover, most micro-motor systems adopt an axial stacking structure design, which makes the axial height of the micro-motor system relatively high and requires a large installation space. This is not conducive to the thinning and miniaturization of the entire centrifugal microfluidic chip device, and makes it difficult to be widely used in distributed deployment scenarios. Summary of the Invention

[0008] The purpose of this invention is to provide an externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip and device suitable for distributed deployment. The centrifugal microfluidic chip and device are implemented with a simple structure, do not require a large amount of placement space, and can be made thin and miniaturized.

[0009] To achieve the above-mentioned technical objectives, the present invention adopts the following technical solution:

[0010] An externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip suitable for distributed deployment is disclosed. The centrifugal microfluidic chip includes a chip body and a magnetic driving structure disposed on the chip body. The magnetic driving structure is arranged around the rotation center of the centrifugal microfluidic chip and is used to drive the centrifugal microfluidic chip to rotate around the rotation center under the action of an external rotating magnetic field.

[0011] Furthermore, the magnetic drive structure disposed on the chip body is specifically implemented as follows: a number of permanent magnets are disposed on the centrifugal microfluidic chip, and all permanent magnets are arranged around the rotation center of the centrifugal microfluidic chip to form the magnetic drive structure.

[0012] Furthermore, the centrifugal microfluidic chip is provided with several permanent magnets, and its specific structural form is as follows: the centrifugal microfluidic chip includes a rotor disk, which is combined with the chip body, and the several permanent magnets are assembled based on the rotor disk.

[0013] Furthermore, the specific form of the permanent magnet being assembled on the rotor disk is as follows: a magnet assembly slot is provided for each permanent magnet on the rotor disk, and each permanent magnet is embedded in the corresponding magnet assembly slot, thereby realizing the assembly on the rotor disk.

[0014] Furthermore, the permanent magnets are evenly and discretely arranged, and the north and south magnetic poles of two adjacent permanent magnets are reversed.

[0015] A centrifugal microfluidic chip device suitable for distributed deployment with external rotational magnetic drive is disclosed. The device includes the centrifugal microfluidic chip as described above. It further includes a drive module, which comprises a stator disk and a rotating magnetic field drive control circuit. Several coils are arranged on the stator disk, all around its center, and all coils are electrically connected to the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit. The centrifugal microfluidic chip is assembled with the drive module via a rotating shaft, with the stator disk close to the chip. The rotating magnetic field drive control circuit controls all coils to generate a rotating magnetic field, enabling the centrifugal microfluidic chip to rotate under the influence of this magnetic field.

[0016] An externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip suitable for distributed deployment is disclosed. The centrifugal microfluidic chip includes a chip body, a rotor disk, and a chip housing. The rotor disk is assembled with the chip body via a rotating shaft and then assembled inside the chip housing. The two ends of the rotating shaft are rotatably connected to the chip housing, and the combination of the rotor disk and the chip body can rotate inside the chip housing. A plurality of permanent magnets are disposed on the rotor disk, and all permanent magnets are arranged around the rotation center of the rotor disk.

[0017] Furthermore, the specific form of the permanent magnet assembly on the rotor disk is as follows: a magnet assembly slot is provided for each permanent magnet on the rotor disk, and each permanent magnet is embedded in the corresponding magnet assembly slot, thereby realizing the assembly on the rotor disk; the permanent magnets are evenly and discretely arranged, and the north and south magnetic poles of two adjacent permanent magnets are reversed.

[0018] A centrifugal microfluidic chip device suitable for distributed deployment with an externally rotating magnetic drive includes a centrifugal microfluidic chip as described above. The device further includes a drive module comprising a stator plate, a rotating magnetic field drive control circuit, and a drive housing. The stator plate and the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit are assembled within the drive housing. Several coils are arranged on the stator plate, all around its center, and all coils are electrically connected to the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit. The centrifugal microfluidic chip and the drive module are assembled together, with the stator plate and rotor plate close together. The rotating magnetic field drive control circuit can control all coils to generate a rotating magnetic field, and the rotor plate can rotate under the influence of the rotating magnetic field.

[0019] Furthermore, the centrifugal microfluidic chip and the drive device module are assembled and connected together through a quick-assembly and disassembly mechanism.

[0020] The main advantages of the externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip and device of the present invention, which are suitable for distributed deployment, compared with the prior art are as follows:

[0021] 1) The centrifugal microfluidic chip is equipped with a magnetic drive structure, which can be driven by an external drive device module to rotate the chip. There is no need to set up a complex drive mechanism for the centrifugal microfluidic chip, so it does not occupy a lot of placement space, greatly reducing the size of the entire centrifugal microfluidic chip and enabling it to be thin and miniaturized.

[0022] 2) As for the entire centrifugal microfluidic chip device, there is no need to set up a complex drive mechanism. The simple structure is used to achieve the effect of driving the chip to rotate, which does not require a lot of placement space. This greatly reduces the size of the entire centrifugal microfluidic chip device, enabling it to be thin and miniaturized. Attached Figure Description

[0023] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the structural principle of the externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip and device suitable for distributed deployment according to the present invention.

[0024] Figure 2This is a schematic diagram of the assembly of an externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip and device suitable for distributed deployment, based on an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0025] The following provides further details on specific embodiments of the present invention:

[0026] This embodiment provides a centrifugal microfluidic chip, and a centrifugal microfluidic chip device (which includes the aforementioned centrifugal microfluidic chip).

[0027] See Figure 1 and Figure 2 ,

[0028] The centrifugal microfluidic chip in this embodiment mainly includes a chip body 3 and a rotor disk 2.

[0029] The structure and function of the chip body 3 are designed based on the target detection process.

[0030] In this embodiment, the chip body 3 is a plasma separation centrifugal microfluidic chip, which is mainly composed of a chip sample introduction layer 31, a channel layer 32 and a channel sealing layer 33, and is used to realize the function of "plasma separation and sensing and detection of indicators such as hematocrit hct".

[0031] It should be noted that the present invention does not limit the specific functions and forms of the chip body 3.

[0032] The innovation of the centrifugal microfluidic chip in this embodiment lies mainly in the arrangement of the rotor disk 2.

[0033] Specifically

[0034] The rotor disk 2 and the chip body 3 are assembled together by a rotating shaft. A housing is provided for the assembly of the rotor disk 2 and the chip body 3; for ease of description, this housing is defined as the chip housing 4. The assembly of the rotor disk 2 and the chip body 3 is assembled within the chip housing 4. Both ends of the rotating shaft are connected to the chip housing 4 via small bearings. The assembly of the rotor disk 2 and the chip body 3 can rotate within the chip housing 4. In this way, a complete centrifugal microfluidic chip is formed.

[0035] It should be noted that the chip housing 4 has a planar outer wall. For ease of description, this planar outer wall is defined as the driven surface. The driven surface is parallel to the rotor disk 2, and the distance between the two is very short. That is to say, the rotor disk 2 faces the external space through the driven surface.

[0036] The rotor disk 2 is provided with a plurality of permanent magnets 22, and the arrangement of these permanent magnets 22 on the rotor disk 2 is as follows:

[0037] a) All permanent magnets 22 are arranged around the rotation axis at the center of the rotor disk 2, or in other words, all permanent magnets 22 are arranged around the rotation center of the rotor disk 2 (that is, the rotation center of the entire centrifugal microfluidic chip).

[0038] b) The permanent magnets 22 are uniformly distributed.

[0039] c) The north and south magnetic poles of two adjacent permanent magnets 22 are reversed.

[0040] More specifically, on the rotor disc 2, a magnet mounting slot 21 is provided for each permanent magnet 22, and each permanent magnet 22 is embedded in the corresponding magnet mounting slot 21, thereby realizing the assembly and placement on the rotor disc 2.

[0041] It should be noted that in other embodiments, several permanent magnets 22 can be directly arranged on the chip body 3, or other structural forms can be used to "integrate several permanent magnets 22 with the chip body 3 into one".

[0042] See Figure 1 and Figure 2 ,

[0043] This embodiment provides a centrifugal microfluidic chip device, which includes the aforementioned centrifugal microfluidic chip.

[0044] In addition, the centrifugal microfluidic chip is also equipped with a stator disk 1 and a rotating magnetic field drive control circuit 6.

[0045] The stator plate 1 is provided with a plurality of coils 11, and the arrangement of these coils 11 on the stator plate 1 is as follows:

[0046] a) All coils 11 are arranged around the center of stator plate 1.

[0047] b) The individual coils 11 are evenly distributed.

[0048] All the coils 11 on the stator plate 1 are electrically connected to the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit 6. The rotating magnetic field drive control circuit 6 can control these coils 11 to generate a magnetic field and control the direction and intensity of the magnetic field.

[0049] The stator disk 1 and the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit 6 are assembled in another independent housing, which is referred to as the drive housing 5 for ease of description.

[0050] It should be noted that the drive housing 5 has a planar outer wall. For ease of description, this planar outer wall is defined as the drive output surface. The drive output surface is parallel to the stator plate 1, and the distance between the two is very short. That is to say, the stator plate 1 faces the external space through the drive output surface.

[0051] The drive housing 5 and the chip housing 4 of the centrifugal microfluidic chip are connected together by a quick disassembly and assembly mechanism. Furthermore, the drive output surface of the drive housing 5 and the driven surface of the chip housing 4 are close together, so the stator disk 1 and the rotor disk 2 are close together, and the center of the stator disk 1 should correspond to the rotation center of the rotor disk 2.

[0052] It should be noted that, for ease of description, the assembly of the stator plate 1, the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit 6, and the drive housing 5 can be defined as the drive device module.

[0053] The centrifugal microfluidic chip and device of this embodiment operate on the following principle:

[0054] The rotating magnetic field drive control circuit 6 controls all the coils 11 on the stator disk 1 to generate a rotating magnetic field around the center. Since the rotor disk 2 in the chip housing 4 is close to the stator disk 1 in the drive housing 5, the rotor disk 2 is actually within the range of the rotating magnetic field. The permanent magnet 22 on the rotor disk 2 forms a driving force to rotate around the axis under the action of the rotating magnetic field. Under the drive of this driving force, the rotor disk 2 can rotate and drive the chip body 3 to rotate through the axis, thereby realizing the rotation drive of the chip body 3.

[0055] The main advantages of the centrifugal microfluidic chip and device of this embodiment are:

[0056] 1) The centrifugal microfluidic chip and device only uses a combination of stator disk 1 and rotor disk 2 to achieve the function of driving the chip to rotate. Both stator disk 1 and rotor disk 2 are thin disks, which do not need to occupy a lot of placement space. In this way, the size of the entire centrifugal microfluidic chip and device is greatly reduced, and it can be made thinner and smaller, which makes it easier to arrange optical, electrochemical or electromagnetic detection modules.

[0057] In addition, the centrifugal microfluidic chip and device of this embodiment have other advantages, as follows:

[0058] 2) The centrifugal microfluidic chip in this embodiment has a simple and reliable structure and low cost. It is separate from the drive device module, which facilitates modularization and one-time replacement.

[0059] 3) Bearings are not used for mechanical transmission;

[0060] Specifically, in traditional solutions, the motor and microfluidic power transmission are carried on bearings, which are prone to damage and have poor durability. In this solution, the bearings only provide rotational constraints and do not perform mechanical transmission. The center of rotation is not subject to power transmission, and the force points are distributed throughout the microfluidic chip, resulting in better durability and smoother rotational acceleration characteristics.

[0061] It should be noted that in this embodiment, a specific driving device module is used to generate a rotating magnetic field to drive the rotor disk 2 of the centrifugal microfluidic chip to rotate the chip. In other embodiments, other types of devices can also be used to generate a rotating magnetic field, which can also drive the chip to rotate.

[0062] The rotating magnetic field drive control circuit 6 is mainly used to drive multiple coils 11 on the stator disk 1 to be energized sequentially according to a predetermined phase relationship, thereby forming a rotating magnetic field in the plane.

[0063] Specifically, in one typical embodiment, the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit 6 includes a control module for generating multiphase drive current and a power drive module. Each coil 11 is arranged in a spatially uniform manner and connected to a drive channel of a different phase. The control module periodically energizes each phase drive channel according to a predetermined phase sequence, forming an alternating current with a fixed phase difference between adjacent coils, thereby creating a magnetic field vector that rotates continuously with time within the plane of the stator disk 1.

[0064] Under the action of the rotating magnetic field, a number of permanent magnets 22 disposed on the rotor disk 2 are magnetically coupled with the rotating magnetic field, thereby generating electromagnetic torque along the circumferential direction, driving the rotor disk 2 to rotate around the rotating shaft, and driving the chip body 3 to rotate synchronously.

[0065] In a typical implementation, the alternating drive current can be a multiphase alternating current, such as a three-phase current, with a predetermined phase difference between each phase current. By adjusting the frequency, amplitude, and phase sequence of each phase current, the centrifugal microfluidic chip can be started, accelerated, stabilized, and its rotation speed adjusted.

[0066] The aforementioned methods for generating the rotating magnetic field and the electromagnetic coupling principle that drives the permanent magnet to rotate are all mature technologies in this field, such as the rotating magnetic field driving principle in brushless DC motors or permanent magnet synchronous motors.

[0067] It should be noted that the coil 11 can be fabricated in a PCB, flexible circuit board or thin substrate.

[0068] It should be noted that the rotating magnetic field mentioned above is implemented in the following way: the rotating magnetic field drives the control circuit 6 to energize each coil 11 in sequence according to the phase difference, forming a magnetic field that rotates in the plane, that is, the rotating magnetic field vector rotates in the plane.

[0069] It should be noted that the permanent magnet 22 can be magnetized in a multi-pole or radial manner to enhance the coupling with the rotating magnetic field.

[0070] In this embodiment, the starting, acceleration, stabilization and dynamic adjustment of the rotation of the chip body 3 can be achieved by adjusting the excitation frequency, phase sequence, phase difference and current amplitude of the coil 11.

[0071] It should be noted that, in other embodiments, the chip body 3 and rotor disk 2 may not be assembled in a housing and may be exposed to the atmospheric environment. That is, the centrifugal microfluidic chip does not have a housing. In this case, the rotation shaft of the chip body 3 and rotor disk 2 can be assembled based on the drive device module.

[0072] Specifically

[0073] Bearings can be installed on the drive housing 5 or on the stator disk 1. The rotating shaft is then assembled based on the drive housing 5 or the stator disk 1 through the bearings. The combination of the chip body 3 and the rotor disk 2 can then rotate based on the drive module. The rotating magnetic field generated by the stator disk 1 can also drive the combination of the chip body 3 and the rotor disk 2 to rotate.

[0074] Furthermore, the rotor disk 2 can be regarded as a component of the chip body, and the combined body formed by "the chip body 3 and the rotor disk 2 being stacked together" can be regarded as a complete chip body. That is to say, all the permanent magnets 22 are set based on the chip body, and all the permanent magnets 22 are arranged around the rotation axis at the center of the chip body, or in other words, all the permanent magnets 22 are arranged around the rotation center of the chip body.

[0075] It should be noted that the rotor disk 2 and the several permanent magnets 22 disposed thereon can be regarded as a magnetic drive structure. This magnetic drive structure can be driven by a rotating magnetic field. The magnetic drive structure is disposed around the rotation center on the centrifugal microfluidic chip. In this way, under the driving action of an external rotating magnetic field, the centrifugal microfluidic chip can rotate around the rotation center.

[0076] The above are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present invention. Therefore, any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A centrifugal microfluidic chip device with an externally rotating magnetic drive suitable for distributed deployment, characterized in that: The externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip device includes a centrifugal microfluidic chip and a drive device module; The centrifugal microfluidic chip includes a chip body (3) and a magnetic drive structure disposed on the chip body (3). The magnetic drive structure is arranged around the rotation center of the centrifugal microfluidic chip. The magnetic drive structure is used to drive the centrifugal microfluidic chip to rotate around the rotation center under the action of an external rotating magnetic field; The drive unit module is provided with a stator plate (1) and a rotating magnetic field drive control circuit (6). The stator plate (1) is provided with a number of coils (11), all coils (11) are arranged around the center of the stator plate (1), and all coils (11) are electrically connected to the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit (6). The centrifugal microfluidic chip is assembled with the drive device module via a rotating shaft, and the stator disk (1) is close to the centrifugal microfluidic chip; The rotating magnetic field drive control circuit (6) can control all coils (11) to generate a rotating magnetic field, and the centrifugal microfluidic chip can rotate under the action of the rotating magnetic field.

2. The externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip device suitable for distributed deployment according to claim 1, characterized in that: The magnetic drive structure disposed on the chip body (3) is specifically implemented in the following structural form: The centrifugal microfluidic chip is provided with a number of permanent magnets (22), and all the permanent magnets (22) are arranged around the rotation center of the centrifugal microfluidic chip to form the magnetic drive structure.

3. The externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip device suitable for distributed deployment according to claim 2, characterized in that: The centrifugal microfluidic chip is equipped with several permanent magnets (22), and its specific structural form is as follows: The centrifugal microfluidic chip includes a rotor disk (2), which is combined with the chip body (3), and the plurality of permanent magnets (22) are assembled based on the rotor disk (2).

4. The externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip device suitable for distributed deployment according to claim 3, characterized in that: The specific form in which the permanent magnet (22) is assembled on the rotor disk (2) is as follows: On the rotor disc (2), a magnet mounting slot (21) is provided for each permanent magnet (22), and each permanent magnet (22) is embedded in the corresponding magnet mounting slot (21), thereby realizing the assembly and setting on the rotor disc (2).

5. The externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip device suitable for distributed deployment according to claim 2, characterized in that: The permanent magnets (22) are evenly and discretely arranged, and the north and south magnetic poles of two adjacent permanent magnets (22) are reversed.

6. A centrifugal microfluidic chip device with an externally rotating magnetic drive suitable for distributed deployment, characterized in that: The externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip device includes a centrifugal microfluidic chip and a drive device module; The centrifugal microfluidic chip includes a chip body (3), a rotor disk (2), and a chip housing (4). The rotor disk (2) is assembled with the chip body (3) via a rotating shaft and then assembled inside the chip housing (4). The two ends of the rotating shaft are rotatably connected to the chip housing (4), and the combination of the rotor disk (2) and the chip body (3) can rotate inside the chip housing (4). The rotor disk (2) is provided with a number of permanent magnets (22), and all the permanent magnets (22) are arranged around the rotation center of the rotor disk (2); The drive unit module includes a stator plate (1), a rotating magnetic field drive control circuit (6), and a drive housing (5). The stator plate (1) and the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit (6) are assembled inside the drive housing (5). The stator plate (1) is provided with a number of coils (11), all coils (11) are arranged around the center of the stator plate (1), and all coils (11) are electrically connected to the rotating magnetic field drive control circuit (6). The centrifugal microfluidic chip is assembled with the drive device module, and the stator disk (1) and rotor disk (2) are close together; The rotating magnetic field drive control circuit (6) can control all coils (11) to generate a rotating magnetic field, and the rotor disc (2) can rotate under the action of the rotating magnetic field.

7. The externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip device suitable for distributed deployment according to claim 6, characterized in that: The specific form in which the permanent magnet (22) is assembled on the rotor disk (2) is as follows: On the rotor disk (2), a magnet mounting slot (21) is provided for each permanent magnet (22), and each permanent magnet (22) is embedded in the corresponding magnet mounting slot (21) to realize the mounting on the rotor disk (2); The permanent magnets (22) are evenly and discretely arranged, and the north and south magnetic poles of two adjacent permanent magnets (22) are reversed.

8. The externally rotating magnetically driven centrifugal microfluidic chip device suitable for distributed deployment according to claim 6, characterized in that: The centrifugal microfluidic chip and the drive device module are assembled and connected together through a quick disassembly and assembly mechanism.

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