153 results about "Digital microfluidics" patented technology

The invention discloses a closed-loop control digital microfluidic system and a method thereof, and relates to the technical field of microfluidics, and the method comprises the following steps: initializing a digital microfluidic chip electrode array, setting an electrode spacing, an electrode size and a voltage upper limit, collecting a no-load state signal, and generating initial reference data; liquid drops are formed at the preset position of the digital micro-fluidic chip, and according to the initial reference data, the initial position, the volume and the form information of the liquid drops are collected, and a liquid drop initial state data set is generated; inputting the initial state data set of the liquid drop into a pre-trained closed-loop prediction model, performing kinetic analysis and trajectory prediction calculation, generating an expected motion trajectory of the liquid drop, and comparing the expected motion trajectory with the real-time state data flow of the liquid drop to generate deviation feedback data of the liquid drop; and dynamically adjusting the initial driving voltage parameter according to the droplet deviation feedback data to generate a closed-loop driving voltage sequence. The liquid drop trajectory control precision is improved, and motion errors caused by environmental disturbance and electrode response differences are reduced.

The invention discloses a liquid drop routing method under fluid constraint in a digital micro-fluidic biochip based on reinforcement learning and imitation learning, and aims to solve the technical problems of low planning efficiency, low success rate and weak generalization ability of a traditional liquid drop routing algorithm under fluid constraint. The method adopts a strategy combining imitation learning and reinforcement learning and comprises the following steps: firstly, generating expert data by utilizing an expert algorithm meeting fluid constraint after transformation, and pre-training a network model through imitation learning to enable the network model to quickly grasp a basic routing strategy; the model and environment interaction are autonomously optimized through reinforcement learning, and the adaptability to the dynamic environment is improved. And finally fusing the weights to form a final model. Through the hybrid training framework, the success rate and planning efficiency of droplet routing are remarkably improved, and the generalization ability of the model to chip environments with different sizes is enhanced.

The invention relates to the field of cell analysis, and provides a multi-mode digital micro-fluidic system and method for cell sorting analysis, the system comprises an active digital micro-fluidic platform, the active digital micro-fluidic platform comprises a micro-fluidic chip, an upper computer control system and an FPGA hardware circuit, an upper computer generates a liquid drop path planning instruction, the FPGA hardware circuit converts the liquid drop path planning instruction into an electrode driving signal, and the electrode driving signal is transmitted to the micro-fluidic chip; the nanoliter-grade liquid drops are driven to change between the electrodes; the optical tweezers platform comprises a laser device, an optical microscope and a CMOS camera, laser beams are generated by the laser device to form a three-dimensional optical potential well, the laser beams are transmitted into the micro-fluidic chip through the optical microscope to realize non-contact control on cells, and the CMOS camera records images and transmits the images back to the upper computer; the objective table clamp is used for realizing cooperative control of the optical tweezers and the active digital microfluidics; and the image recognition system is used for recognizing morphological characteristics of cells in the liquid drops based on a convolutional neural network and screening target cells. According to the invention, integration of high-throughput nondestructive cell sorting and in-situ multi-modal analysis is realized.

The invention provides a digital micro-fluidic chip and application, and relates to the technical field of chips. The method comprises the steps that if a driving instruction including address information of an electrode is received through a signal line in a signal line cluster corresponding to a functional area, the electrode indicated by the address information is gated in the functional area according to the address information, and the address information includes a row number and a column number of an operation position in the functional area; in the area positions in the functional area array, one operation position corresponds to at least one electrode; and executing corresponding operation at the operation position of the electrode through the electrode. According to the invention, multi-dimensional addresses can be set for the operation positions in the functional area, so that the same functional area can be reused, the number of the operation positions in the functional area is increased, and the chip has the capability of controlling a huge amount of micro-droplets.

The utility model relates to a temperature control component for a digital micro-fluidic chip and a reagent temperature control device, the temperature control component comprises a flow channel substrate, a first temperature control assembly and a negative pressure module, the flow channel substrate is provided with at least one temperature control flow channel, the temperature control flow channel is configured to contain liquid drops, and at least partial area of the temperature control flow channel is provided with a breathable waterproof layer; the first temperature control assembly is arranged on one side of the flow channel substrate and is configured to heat or cool the temperature control flow channel; the negative pressure module is connected to the flow channel substrate and / or the first temperature control assembly and pumps out bubbles in the liquid drops or gas dissolved in the liquid drops through the breathable waterproof layer. Compared with the prior art, the reagent heating device has the advantages that the reagent can be independently heated, direct heating on the surface of the chip is avoided, the chip material is not limited, the heating efficiency is high, the heating time is short, and the problem of bubbles caused by high-temperature heating of the reagent can be solved; and when the heating temperature is high, the problems that the reagent adheres to the chip and the performance of the chip is reduced cannot occur.

The present application relates to a kind of micro nuclear magnetic resonance probe and nucleic acid, antibody nuclear magnetic resonance detection method.Micro nuclear magnetic resonance probe includes the parallel arrangement of first plane shimming coil, nuclear magnetic resonance micro coil chip, digital microfluidic chip and second plane shimming coil in sequence, digital microfluidic chip is single pole plate form, the microstrip of medium substrate on nuclear magnetic resonance micro coil chip is annular microstrip coil, nuclear magnetic resonance micro coil chip and digital microfluidic chip are spaced apart.There is beneficial effect: through digital microfluidic chip control droplet, with simple structure, easy integration advantage;Annular microstrip coil can generate a uniform B1 field that matches the shape of droplet, can improve the filling factor of trace sample droplet;Nucleic acid, antibody modified magnetic particle probe can enhance nuclear magnetic resonance detection sensitivity, by quantitative analysis the change amount of relaxation time and the concentration of target detection substance, nucleic acid, antibody quantitative detection can be realized.

The application relates to the technical field of microfluidic chips and optical tweezers, in particular to a novel combination of an optical tweezers and a digital microfluidic chip structure manufacturing method, which comprises an upper chip substrate and a lower chip substrate; the upper chip substrate and the lower chip substrate are matched to form an optical tweezers functional area and a digital microfluidic functional area, and the optical tweezers functional area and the digital microfluidic functional area complete planar processing; the upper chip substrate comprises a hydrophobic layer, an insulating layer, an electrode layer and a glass layer; liquid crystal is arranged between the upper chip substrate and the lower chip substrate, and the liquid crystal contains cells. The application combines the optical tweezers and the digital microfluidic chip structure and the manufacturing method thereof, so that the photoelectric current control chip can be reused, the cost is reduced, the liquid phase separation capacity of small substances in microdroplets is improved, the problems of cell liquid phase separation, fixed time culture and detection can be solved, and the two technologies are not conflicted on the chip.

The invention relates to the technical field of microfluidics and molecular diagnosis, and discloses a digital micro-fluidic chip for preparing an NGS methylation library. Comprising a bearing substrate, an electrode array used for electrowetting driving is formed on the upper surface of the bearing substrate to serve as a liquid drop conveying channel, the bearing substrate is divided into a plurality of functional areas which are sequentially arranged from the first side to the second side, the areas are communicated with one another through the liquid drop conveying channel, and micro-liquid drops are transferred and distributed among the areas. The upper cover is arranged opposite to the bearing substrate, a micro-droplet containing cavity is defined between the upper cover and the bearing substrate through a spacing frame arranged around the electrode array, and the upper cover is provided with a plurality of liquid inlet and outlet holes corresponding to the functional areas respectively. The chip is driven by the electrode array, so that micro-droplets entering the reagent sample introduction area and the sample introduction area through the liquid inlet and outlet holes are sequentially conveyed to the reaction area, and the micro-droplets after reaction are transferred to the taking-out area and are output through the liquid inlet and outlet holes, so that at least part of steps in the NGS methylation library preparation process are completed.

The application discloses a kind of closed loop control digital microfluidic system and method thereof, it is related to microfluidic technical field, including, initialization digital microfluidic chip electrode array, set electrode spacing, electrode size and voltage upper limit, and collect empty load state signal, generate initial reference data;Droplet is formed in the predetermined position of digital microfluidic chip, and according to initial reference data, collect droplet initial position, volume and morphological information, generate droplet initial state data set;Droplet initial state data set is input after pre-training closed loop prediction model, carries out dynamics analysis and trajectory prediction calculation, generates droplet expected motion trajectory, and compares with droplet real-time state data flow, generates droplet deviation feedback data;According to droplet deviation feedback data, dynamically adjust preliminary driving voltage parameter, generate closed loop driving voltage sequence.The application improves droplet trajectory control precision, reduces environmental disturbance and the motion error brought by electrode response difference.

The application discloses an integrated digital microfluidic plasmonic metasurface chip biological image detection system, and belongs to the field of microfluidic and metasurface biological image sensing. The system comprises a digital microfluidic chip, a plasmonic metasurface chip, a light source, a CMOS image sensor and a control circuit. The digital microfluidic chip is provided with a driving electrode array, a medium layer and a hydrophobic layer, and is used for constructing a liquid path and controlling droplets. The plasmonic metasurface chip is combined with the digital microfluidic chip to form a detection site, and is used for detecting biomolecules by using a plasmonic resonance effect. The light source is used for exciting plasmonic resonance. The CMOS image sensor is used for capturing images at the detection site. The control circuit is used for controlling electrodes of the digital microfluidic chip, and realizes construction of the liquid path and control of the droplets. The biomolecule solution to be detected can be accurately guided to the detection site of the plasmonic metasurface chip, the light source is used for exciting plasmonic resonance, and the CMOS image sensor is used for capturing images. Image intensity changes are analyzed by using image processing software, and a detection result of the biomolecules is obtained.

The application belongs to the technical field of digital microfluidics, and discloses a high-throughput digital microfluidic chip based on a PCB, a driving system and a preparation method.The chip comprises a driving electrode substrate and a lower substrate.The driving electrode substrate provides a flat contact surface for micro-droplet movement, reduces micro-droplet movement resistance and residue and adhesion on the chip surface, the gap between adjacent driving electrodes is less than or equal to 100 microns, and the driving voltage for micro-droplet control is reduced.The lower substrate controls vertical addressing of the electrodes on the bonded driving electrode substrate, and on the basis of ensuring the electrode contact gap and flatness, a portable digital microfluidic chip with any large throughput can be manufactured at low cost.Based on the high scalability of active circuits and PCB chips, tens of thousands of discrete droplets can be driven in parallel on the same chip.By changing the chemical and biological components in the micro-droplets, the application can perform high-throughput analysis and synthesis tasks in chemical, biological and medical engineering applications.

The present disclosure relates to a digital microfluidics, 'DMF', system and a method for operating the same. The DMF system comprises: a first substrate unit comprising a first substrate having arranged thereon a plurality of electrodes for manipulation of a liquid volume; and a second substrate unit spaced apart from the first substrate unit in a first direction, wherein the second substrate unit comprises a second substrate having arranged thereon an organic electrochemical transistor, 'OECT', biosensor.

The invention discloses an organoid in-situ manufacturing, dynamic observation and drug screening platform based on digital microfluidics, holographic feedback and photocuring printing. The platform can be widely applied to the fields of regenerative medicine, drug research and development, disease research and the like. According to the platform, in-situ packaging and dynamic culture of the organoid are achieved through an electro-infiltration chip, the morphology and mechanical properties of the organoid are fed back in real time in combination with a holographic microscopy technology, and high-precision hardness gradient control is achieved through a photocuring printing system; after the organoid is formed, the platform can continue to observe the state of the organoid in situ through the digital holographic microscopy system, and specified drugs are conveyed through digital microfluidics. The platform comprises an electro-infiltration chip module, a digital holographic microscopy system, a photocuring biological three-dimensional printing system, a driving control unit and a data analysis processing unit, and supports parallel manufacturing, targeted drug delivery and high-throughput screening of organoids.

This invention discloses an experimental droplet routing method for digital microfluidic chips based on an improved A* algorithm. The improvement to the A* algorithm includes: incorporating the number of electrode wear cycles into the heuristic function of the A* algorithm; adding a coefficient related to the number of wear cycles, which can be modified according to the chip wear level; reducing the coefficient when chip wear is minor, prioritizing routing distance, and calculating the shortest distance as the target for route calculation; increasing the coefficient when chip wear is severe, aiming to calculate the route through areas of less worn chip and avoiding areas of severe wear; and adjusting the path after obtaining the droplet routing path, moving the repetitive wear areas at the start and end points to the middle of the path to reduce repeated wear on electrodes in the start and end areas. This invention, by improving the A* algorithm, allows droplet routing to consider electrode wear factors simultaneously, further improving the chip wear uniformity and extending the chip's lifespan.

The present application relates to the technical field of microfluidics, and provides a digital microfluidic chip, which comprises an electrode array, a driving module and a top cover arranged above the electrode array, a gap for accommodating small droplets is formed between the top cover and the electrode array, the electrode array comprises a plurality of rows of electrode array groups, each row of the electrode array groups comprises a plurality of electrodes, the driving module controls each electrode in each row of the electrode array groups to be opened in turn, and the size of the small droplets is regulated by adjusting the gap and the electrodes in the electrode array. A pixel driving method of the digital microfluidic chip is also provided. A constant temperature amplification method is also provided, which adopts the pixel driving method of the digital microfluidic chip. The GOA and MUX circuit combination design is adopted, the driving signal complexity of the electrode matrix can be greatly reduced, the stability is improved, and simple and flexible electrode driving is achieved.

This invention relates to an integrated surface acoustic wave (SAW) device, system, and method for digital microfluidic control of droplet rotation and centrifugal manipulation. The device includes a digital microfluidic region, a SAW processing region, and a droplet transition interface region located between the two. A droplet residence area is provided within the SAW processing region. After sample introduction, transport, splitting, fusion, or temporary storage within the digital microfluidic region, the droplet enters the droplet residence area via the droplet transition interface region, where it forms a rotating flow, a circulating flow, and local enrichment under the influence of an asymmetric acoustic field. After enrichment or mixing, bright-field, dark-field, or fluorescence detection can be performed using an in-situ optical detection module. After processing, the droplet returns to the digital microfluidic region for continued transport, collection, or disposal. This solution improves the continuity, automation, and on-chip integration of droplet cross-region manipulation.

Described is a digital microfluidics system and method for measuring an analyte concentration in a droplet. Droplet movement operations can be used to carry out biological, biochemical, and chemical reactions, measurements, and experiments and a light source and light detector or spectrophotometer can be used to transmit light through a droplet to determine the absorbance of light through the droplet to calculate a concentration of analyte in the droplet.

An active matrix electrowetting on dielectric (AM-EWoD) device including a substrate with thin-film transistors (TFT), a dielectric layer, and a spatially variable wettability layer covering the dielectric layer. As depicted herein, the spatially variable wettability layer may include a plurality of portions having different contact angles, one or more contact angle gradients, or both.

Disclosed herein is a surfactant additive, ethylenediamine tetrakis(ethoxylate-block-propoxylate) tetrol with 16 ethylene oxide repeat units and 18 propylene oxide repeat units (known by its trade name as Tetronic 90R4) used as a droplet-additive, or to coat DMF driving electrode surfaces which dramatically improves the capability to work with high-protein-content liquids (e.g., whole blood) on digital microfluidic chips. This surfactant prevents protein adsorption and fouling of DMF electrode surfaces to an extent that was heretofore impossible. Specifically, this surfactant allows for the manipulation of droplets of undiluted whole blood for >1 hour per electrode (>1 50 times better than what is possible for any known additive). This improvement in handling high protein content media will revolutionize blood-based diagnostics on digital microfluidic platforms.

The invention discloses a molecular processing and mass spectrum ionization method and device of a digital micro-fluidic chip directly integrated with a nanorod array. In the device, a digital micro-fluidic system comprises a digital micro-fluidic chip and a micro-droplet driving platform, and the digital micro-fluidic chip integrated with a silicon nano-column array comprises an upper polar plate and a lower polar plate; the upper electrode plate comprises a first base layer and a conductive layer which are connected in sequence; the lower pole plate comprises a second base layer and a dielectric layer which are sequentially connected, and an electrode array is arranged between the second base layer and the dielectric layer and used for achieving liquid phase mass transfer driving; the other side of the conductive layer and the other side of the dielectric layer are respectively provided with a hydrophobic layer. According to the invention, the functionally modified nanorod array silicon wafer is embedded into the upper electrode plate of the digital micro-fluidic chip, the target object is efficiently enriched on the chip, then the upper electrode plate is put into the customized target plate, and the customized target plate is sent into the mass spectrometer for mass spectrometry, so that the loss caused by sample movement can be reduced, and the integrated process is realized. The device disclosed by the invention has the advantages of small volume sample consumption, high throughput, rapidness and the like, and shows a wide application prospect in clinical tumor screening and diagnosis.

The invention relates to a preparation method of a digital micro-fluidic chip and the digital micro-fluidic chip. The method comprises the following steps: S10, preparing a first polar plate; s20, preparing a second polar plate; s30, assembling the first polar plate and the second polar plate; the step S20 comprises the substeps of sequentially preparing a second electrode layer, a hydrophilic layer, a stripping photoresist, a starting layer and a positive photoresist on a second substrate; exposing and developing the positive photoresist, the starting layer and the stripping photoresist, and removing the positive photoresist, the starting layer and the stripping photoresist in a preset micropore pattern area to obtain a substrate structure with a photoresist microcolumn array; spin-coating a second hydrophobic layer on the substrate structure with the photoresist microcolumn array; performing gas-phase activation on the second hydrophobic layer; and removing the stripping photoresist, the starting layer, the positive photoresist and the second hydrophobic layer covering the surface of the positive photoresist to obtain a second hydrophobic layer which is arranged on the surface of the hydrophilic layer and is provided with a plurality of micropores.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a digital microfluidic chip drive system and drive method, the system comprising: a drive circuit including a voltage source, a power relay, and an independently replaceable solid-state relay; a digital microfluidic chip connected to the power relay in the drive circuit; and a main control development board connected to the solid-state relay in the drive circuit, the solid-state relay being simultaneously connected to the power relay, and the power relay being simultaneously connected to the voltage source. The main control development board utilizes multiple ports to output a target voltage to the solid-state relay through cross-addressing to control the opening and closing of the solid-state relay, and controls the digital microfluidic chip by controlling the opening of the solid-state relay when the solid-state relay outputs the target voltage. The digital microfluidic chip drive system and drive method of the present invention are simple in structure, support monitoring, and are easy to maintain.

The utility model discloses a digital micro-fluidic system containing a quartz crystal microbalance sensor. The digital micro-fluidic system comprises an integrated system and a main body, the integrated system comprises a constant temperature system, a microfluidic system, a quartz crystal microbalance system, a control system and a data processing system, automatic control of subsystems of the instrument is realized by using an embedded system, and integrated control of the subsystems is completed by combining system programming. A main body is designed to surround a micro-fluid channel of a micro-fluidic chip and a layout of a quartz crystal sensor, the QCM sensor is connected with the micro-fluid channel of the micro-fluidic chip, it is ensured that fluid can be in contact with the sensor through the channel, fluid flowing is accurately controlled through a peristaltic pump and the micro-fluid channel, and a sample pool and a waste liquid pool are arranged; the container is used for storing samples and collecting waste liquid; mechanical support design is carried out on an instrument support structure, and internal structure protection design is carried out on each control and interface unit.

The embodiment of the present disclosure provides a digital microfluidic chip and a driving method thereof, and a digital microfluidic device. The digital microfluidic chip comprises a first substrate (1) and a second substrate (2) arranged opposite to each other, wherein the first substrate (1) is provided with a plurality of driving areas for driving droplet movement, at least one driving area comprises a driving transistor (50), a driving electrode (60) and a storage capacitor, wherein the driving electrode (60) is connected to the driving transistor (50) and the storage capacitor respectively, and the storage capacitor is configured to be charged when the driving transistor (50) is turned on and to maintain a voltage signal on the driving electrode (60) when the driving transistor (50) is turned off.

The application relates to a digital microfluidic chip with replaceable hydrophobic dielectric film and a processing method thereof, which comprises a lower plate and an upper plate, and the lower plate and the upper plate are connected through conductive adhesive tape; the lower plate is composed of a multilayer structure and sequentially comprises an FPC substrate, an electrode layer, a first PDMS adhesive layer, a PI dielectric film and a first hydrophobic layer from bottom to top, wherein the PI dielectric film and the first hydrophobic layer constitute a replaceable hydrophobic dielectric film, and the upper plate sequentially comprises a second hydrophobic layer, an ITO-PET film, a second PDMS adhesive layer and a glass substrate from bottom to top. In the chip processing method disclosed by the application, the replaceable customized hydrophobic dielectric film can realize the customized control of the operation area on the chip, and greatly reduces the cost of directly replacing the whole chip after use.

The application discloses a digital microfluidic biological detection device based on a GaN HEMT sensor, which comprises a GaN HEMT sensor, and a reagent droplet detection area is arranged at the lower part of the GaN HEMT sensor; when a droplet carrying an antigen is put into the device, the droplet is driven by applying a voltage on the electrode to change the contact angle of the droplet; when the droplet carrying the antigen to be detected passes through the detection area, the antigen in the droplet is combined with the antibody in the detection area, and the combination causes the change of the two-dimensional electron gas concentration in the potential well; the change of the two-dimensional electron gas concentration causes the change of the current between the source and the drain of the transistor; therefore, the change of the concentration of the introduced antigen to be detected can be detected through the change of the current; compared with the prior art, the application has the advantages that the reagent amount can be accurately controlled, the consumption of the reagent is reduced, and several droplets can be individually or simultaneously controlled to complete the detection according to the specified path, and the application has great flexibility.

The application discloses a kind of magnetic digital microfluidic system and microfluidic method, the system includes droplet control unit, magnetic core coil array on-off unit, logic control unit and signal detection unit, the droplet control unit includes microfluidic platform and magnetic core coil array, the magnetic core coil array is arranged below microfluidic platform, magnetic core coil array is connected with magnetic core coil array on-off unit, the logic control unit is connected with magnetic core coil array on-off unit, signal detection unit respectively.The application utilizes magnetic core coil array, can directly drive magnetic droplet and non-magnetic droplet in microfluidic platform, and realizes a series of operations such as control, transport, merge, distribution, heating and detection to droplet, can solve the problem that existing magnetic digital microfluidic system can only be limited to drive magnetic droplet, and biological compatibility is poor.

An apparatus for forming a plurality of microdroplets from a droplet includes a substrate, a dielectric layer on the substrate and having a plurality of hydrophilic surface regions spaced apart from each other by a hydrophobic surface, and a plurality of electrodes covered by the dielectric layer. The electrodes are configured to form an electric field across the droplet in response to a voltage provided by a control circuit to move the droplet across the dielectric layer in a lateral direction while leaving a portion of the droplet on the hydrophilic surface regions to form a plurality of microdroplets on the hydrophilic surface regions.

The invention relates to a digital micro-fluidic chip and application thereof, and the digital micro-fluidic chip comprises a first substrate (10) which comprises a first substrate (11), and the first substrate (11) is provided with a sample introduction hole (12); one side of the intermediate layer (20) is connected with the first substrate (10), the intermediate layer (20) comprises a flow channel communicated with the sample introduction hole (12), and the flow channel sequentially comprises a liquid drop generation area (21), a liquid drop deceleration area (22) and a digital micro-fluidic area (23); the droplet generation area (21) is configured to generate micro-droplets; the droplet deceleration region (22) is configured to decelerate the microdroplets; the second substrate (30) is connected with one side, far away from the first substrate (10), of the interposer (20); the second substrate (30) comprises a driving electrode (31), and the driving electrode (31) is configured to drive the micro-droplets in the interposer (20) to move.