2008 results about "Micro fluidic" patented technology

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods to create stable emulsions with low rates of exchange of molecules between microdroplets.

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for performing heat-exchanging reactions on an electro wetting-based micro fluidic device. The apparatus provides one or multiple thermal contacts to an electro wetting-based device, where each thermal contact controls the part of the electro wetting-based device it communicates with to a designed temperature. The electrowetting-based device can be used to create, merge and mix liquids in the format of droplets and transport them to different temperature zones on the micro fluidic device. The apparatus and methods of the invention can be used for heat-exchanging chemical processes such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and other DNA reactions, such as ligase chain reactions, for DNA amplification and synthesis, and for real-time PCR.

The present invention provides novel microfluidic devices and methods for controlling/manipulating fluidic materials in microfluidic devices. In particular, the devices and methods of the invention create and utilize differences between dispersion rates and/or average velocity of fluidic materials in order to manipulate fluidic materials.

Provided is a micro-fluidic heating system, which comprises a micro-fluidic control element for providing a chamber, a flow path and a valve, and a main body for heating the inside of the chamber in contact with the micro-fluidic control element, wherein the micro-fluidic control element consists of an upper substrate for providing the chamber, the flow path and the valve, and a lower substrate as a thin film bonded to the upper substrate, and the main body consists of a membrane in which heating means and suction holes are formed, and support member for supporting the membrane, and the heating means is partially in contact with the lower substrate of the chamber to heat the inside of the chamber, so that thermal transfer efficiency becomes maximized and temperature of each chamber may be independently controlled in the case of configuration having chambers arranged in array.

This disclosure concerns a cytometry system including a handling system that presents single cells to at least one quantum cascade laser (QCL) source. The QCL laser source is configured to deliver light to a cell within the cells in order to induce resonant mid-IR vibrational absorption by one or more analytes, leading to local heating that results in thermal expansion and an associated shockwave. An acoustic detection facility that detects the shockwave emitted by the single cell.

The invention relates to a multichannel micro-fluidic chip specially used for AIDS diagnosis and comprising quasi-one-dimensional sensitive electrodes, belonging to the field of test. One of the hopes in the progress of medical techniques is to quickly diagnose AIDS at low cost. The invention provides a micro-fluidic chip that uses a plurality of AIDS characteristic antibodies to simultaneously detect and quickly diagnose AIDS. The chip is provided with three micro liquid storage tanks. The key points of the proposal lie in that the inner of the chip contains capillary channels of parallel structure, the parallel structure contains four micro-channels mutually connected in parallel, four working electrodes of bead string structure in total are respectively arranged in the four micro-channels, the substances on the superficial coats of the four working electrodes of bead string structure are respectively four antibody substances, namely, AIDS antibodies p24, gp41, gp120 and gp36. The application of the chip is conducive to increasing the diagnosis efficiency of AIDS as shown by the structural characteristics.

The invention relates to a special micro-fluidic chip for cholera diagnosis with one-dimensional self-assembly magnetic bead chain electrodes, belonging to the field of testing. Rapid diagnosis of fulminating infectious disease cholera with low cost is one of many expectations in the development of medical technology, and the invention provides a micro-fluidic chip for simultaneously detecting and rapidly diagnosing cholera by using multiple characteristic antibodies of cholera. The chip is provided with three micro liquid storage tanks, and the invention is characterized in that capillary passages in parallel configuration contain in the chip, the parallel configuration contains four micro-passages that are mutually in parallel, four magnetic bead chain working electrodes are respectively installed inside the four micro-passages, the surface substances of the four magnetic bead chain working electrodes are respectively four antibody substances that are cholera TP0821 antibody, cholera TP0319 antibody, cholera TP0624 antibody and cholera O139 mycoprotein antibody. The integrated structure and the appearances of specific magnetic bead chain working electrodes facilitate to improve the diagnosis efficiency of cholera diseases.

Disclosed is a method for fabricating 1-dimensional micro-arrays using parallel micro-fluidic channels on chemically-modified metal, carbon, silicon, and/or germanium surfaces; a muL detection volume method that uses 2-dimensional nucleic acid micro-arrays formed by employing the 1-dimensional DNA micro-arrays in conjunction with a second set of parallel micro-fluidic channels for solution delivery, and the 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional arrays used in the methods. The methodology allows the rapid creation of 1- and 2-dimensional arrays for SPR imaging and fluorescence imaging of DNA-DNA, DNA-RNA, DNA-protein, and protein-protein binding events. The invention enables very small volumes necessary for a variety of bioassay applications to be analyzed by SPR. Target solution volumes as small as 200 pL can be analyzed.

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for the rapid serial processing of multiple nucleic acid assays. More particularly, the present invention provides for the real time processing of nucleic acid during polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and thermal melt applications. According to an aspect of the invention, a system for the rapid serial processing of multiple nucleic acid assays is provided. In one embodiment, the system includes, but is not limited to: a microfluidic cartridge having microfluidic (flow-through) channels, a fluorescence imaging system, a temperature measurement and control system; a pressure measurement and control system for applying variable pneumatic pressures to the microfluidic cartridge; a storage device for holding multiple reagents (e.g., a well-plate); a liquid handling system comprising at least one robotic pipettor for aspirating, mixing, and dispensing reagent mixtures to the microfluidic cartridge; systems for data storage, processing, and output; and a system controller to coordinate the various devices and functions.

The invention relates to a micro-fluidic chip and a micro-fluidic chip system for single cell analysis and a single cell analyzing method. The micro-fluidic chip for single cell analysis comprises a transparent top cover, a microfluid channel, a substrate with a micropore array and a bottom plate with a cavity body, which are sequentially connected from top to bottom in a sealing manner, wherein the transparent top cover is provided with an inflow hole and an outflow hole which are used for communicating the outside and the microfluid channel, the micropore array of the substrate is arranged below the microfluid channel and is communicated with the microfluid channel, each micropore is internally provided with an electrode, each electrode is provided with a cathode and an anode, each micropore can contain a single cell only, the bottom of each micropore is provided with a channel which is communicated with the cavity body of the bottom plate, and the cross section of the channel is smaller than the size of each single cell. With the adoption of the micro-fluidic chip, the micro-fluidic chip system and the single cell analyzing method, the capturing, identifying and disruption processes of each single cell are integrated on one micro-fluidic chip; as a corresponding operation method is provided, the content of each single cell is rapidly acquired and accurately analyzed.

A microfluidic disc having one or more enclosed microchannel structures, and the microchannel structures are intended to be used for transport of transporting liquids. The device is characterized in that at least a part of the inner walls of each of one or more microchannel structures are treated with a gas plasma having one or more organic precursor compounds.

In one aspect, the present invention relates to a microfluidic chamber. In one embodiment, the microfluidic chamber has a first sub-chamber and at least one second sub-chamber. The first sub-chamber has a first window and a second window. Both the first window and the second window are transparent to electrons of certain energies. The second window is positioned substantially parallel and opposite to the first window defining a first volume therebetween. The first window and the second window are separated by a distance that is sufficiently small such that an electron beam that enters from the first window can propagate through the first sub-chamber and exit from the second window. The at least one second sub-chamber is in fluid communication with the first sub-chamber and has a second volume that is greater than the first volume of the first sub-chamber.

The invention discloses a cell sorter micro-fluidic chip based on the immunomagnetic separation technology and application thereof in the aspect of enrichment of rare cells, belonging to the technicalfield of micro-fluidic chips. The micro-fluidic chip, improved on the basis of the existing Y-type micro-fluidic chip, comprises a substrate and a cover-slip, wherein a Y-shaped micro-channel, a sample cell (1) and a buffer cell (2) respectively located at two end points of the upper part of the Y-shaped micro-channel, and an effluent cell (3) located at the end point of the lower part of the Y-shaped micro-channel are arranged on the substrate; and an antigen/antibody immunological reaction chamber (4) located on the micro-channel between the cross point (5) of the Y-shaped micro-channel andthe effluent cell (3) is further arranged on the substrate, wherein the width of the antigen/antibody immunological reaction chamber (4) is 2 to 5 times that of the micro-channel. The chip of the invention can effectively and rapidly fix the magnetic beads, increase the sample size of cells, improve the analysis flux, reduce the dead volume of sample introduction and reduce the retention and cross infection.

A device (1) for sorting objects immersed in a flowing medium is described. The device comprises a holographic imaging unit comprising a plurality of holographic imaging elements (2), a fluid handling unit comprising a plurality of microfluidic channels (3) for conducting flowing medium along a corresponding holographic imaging element (2) and comprising a microfluidic switch (5) arranged downstream of an imaging region in the microfluidic channel for controllably directing each object in the flowing medium into a selected one of a plurality of outlets (6). The device also comprises a processing unit (7) adapted for real-time characterization of the holographic diffraction image obtained for each of the objects thereby taking into account at least one predetermined object type signature. The processing unit (7) furthermore is adapted for controlling the microfluidic switch (5) in response to the characterization.

The invention discloses a micro-fluidic chip structure for a flow cytometer, and a preparation method a micro-fluidic chip. The chip comprises a sample liquid inlet 1, a column array structure 6, a conical focusing structure 7, a micro-channel 8, a detection zone 4, a flow expanding channel 9 and a waste liquid outlet end 5, wherein the column array structure 6 can play a role of filtering agglomerate protein impurities and other large biological solids inside sample liquid; and the conical focusing structure 7 has a focusing effect which is similar to that of the traditional sheath liquid system, so that cell granules flow inside the micro-channel 8 one by one; and the micro-channel 8 restricts the cells through the channel, so that the cells pass through the detection zone 4 one by one. By adopting the chip structure disclosed by the invention, the focusing effect without sheath flow liquid can be achieved; and blockage is not generated, so as to reduce use of the sheath flow liquid; and meanwhile, the situation that the cell granules pass through the detection zone one by one is ensured. The processing method of the micro-fluidic chip is convenient; the used bonding method is a common bonding method, and is simple and convenient to operate; and the used material PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) is easy to process and has good biocompatibility.

A micro-device for testing for agents in a fluid including at least one micro-chamber and a sensor for sensing agents in the fluid, the sensor is located within the micro-chamber. A micro-device for testing for agents in a fluid including a micro-chamber and a micro-fluidic system, the micro-fluidic system is used for pumping the fluid into the micro-chamber. A micro-device for testing for agents in a fluid including a miniature micro-chamber for testing for agents in a small amount of fluid.

The invention provides a full-automatic nucleic acid extraction and PCR amplification micro-fluidic chip which comprises at least one main body, wherein the main body is distributed in equal distance around the chip; the main body comprises a nucleic acid extraction unit, a PCR amplification unit, a waste liquid unit and an exhaust unit, wherein the nucleic acid extraction unit is positioned on the main body and is used for extracting, washing and eluting nucleic acid in sequence under the driving of centrifugal force and capillary force; the PCR amplification unit is adopted for PCR reaction amplification; the waste liquid unit comprises a waste liquid cavity which is used for storing a waste liquid; the exhaust unit comprises exhaust holes and a plurality of exhaust channels; and the plurality of exhaust channels are communicated with the nucleic acid extraction unit, the PCR amplification unit and the waste liquid unit and are used for exhausting air. The invention discloses a micro-fluidic chip for achieving full-automatic nucleic acid extraction and PCR reaction through centrifugal force, capillary force and siphon phenomenon, the micro-fluidic chip has no integrated equipment such as pumps or valves, so that the manufacturing difficulty and cost of the chip are greatly reduced, and moreover the reliability of the chip is improved.

The invention relates to a special AIDS diagnosis device combining and utilizing a high polymer anoxybiotic pyrolysis product, belonging to the test field. Aiming at rapid and low-cost AIDS diagnosis which is one of medical technical progress expectations, the invention provides a micro-fluidic chip for simultaneously detecting and rapidly diagnosing AIDS by utilizing a plurality of AIDS characteristic antibodies, and the chip is provided with three micro liquid storage tanks. The invention is characterized in that the chip comprises capillary channels in parallel construction containing four micro channels mutually connected in parallel; four fibrous working electrodes are respectively mounted in the four micro channels; and four antibody substances, i.e. an AIDS antibody p24, an AIDS antibody gp41, an AIDS antibody gp120 and an AIDS antibody gp36 are respectively arranged on the surfaces of the four fibrous working electrodes which are originally made of pyrolysis conductive macromolecular material. The chip has low cost and multiple channels.

A disposable cartridge had body, bottom layer with first hydrophobic surface, top layer with a second hydrophobic surface, and gap between. The bottom layer is a flexible film sealingly attached at its circumference to the top layer. No spacer is between the layers. The top layer has loading sites for transferring processing liquids into the gap. In use, the bottom layer is a working film for manipulating samples in liquid droplets and is placed on an electrode array of a digital microfluidics system having base unit with cartridge accommodation site and electrode array at the site. The electrode array is supported by a bottom substrate that extends in a first plane and has individual electrodes. The system also includes a central control unit for controlling selection of the electrodes and for providing these electrodes with individual voltage pulses for manipulating liquid droplets within the gap by electrowetting.

The present invention relates to a micro fluidic device for analysis of a fluid sample, especially for molecular diagnostics applications, comprising: —a substrate having a surface with at least one micro channel structure thereon; —at least one detecting, controlling and/or processing element; —at least one reception chamber for receiving the fluid sample, wherein the reception chamber is formable between a membrane and the substrate, wherein the reception chamber is fluently connected with at least one micro channel; —at least one membrane, wherein the membrane covers the upper surface of at least one micro channel structure arranged on said substrate leakage proof, whereby movement of said membrane causes a pump action on fluid located in said reception chamber in said micro channel and/or causes a valve action on fluid directed through said micro channel; and—at least one device for actuating the movement of the membrane, comprising pressure and/or vacuum generating means.

The invention relates to a centrifugal micro-fluidic chip for detecting pesticide residue and a preparation method thereof. The centrifugal micro-fluidic chip for detecting the pesticide residue is a disk type chip with a micro structure and a micro channel and consists of multiple layers of chips; the mixing, extracting, reacting, separating and developing process of a sample to be measured and a reagent is realized under the drive of a centrifugal force generated by rotating a centrifugal machine; and finally, the content of the pesticide residue in the sample is quantitatively detected by using an ultraviolet visible light spectrophotometer. The centrifugal micro-fluidic chip for detecting the pesticide residue can be used for directly sampling without pretreating the sample; the consumption of the sample and the reagent is low; a plurality of samples can be simultaneously treated and detected in parallel, and thus the integration, the micromation and the automation of the pesticide residue detection are realized; and the centrifugal micro-fluidic chip has the characteristics of economy, quickness and portability and provides a brand-new analysis technology for quickly detecting the pesticide residue of water bodies, foods and soil.

The invention belongs to the technical field of micro-fluidic analysis chips, and concretely relates to a nano-material electrode modification based electrochemical integrated digital micro-fluidic chip. The electrochemical integrated digital micro-fluidic chip treats a digital micro-fluidic chip as a base and integrates an electrochemical-sensing micro-electrode, an electrochemical electrode is embedded in the control electrode of the digital micro-fluidic chip, and all the electrodes are positioned in a same plane of the chip. The nano-material modification of the electrochemical sensing electrode is realized through the micro-fluidic automatic control in order to enhance the electrochemical sensing capability of the micro-fluidic chip. The nano-material electrode modification based electrochemical integrated digital micro-fluidic chip has the advantages of novel design, high integration level, convenient making, high automation degree, strong detection capability, realization of the micro-scale, rapid and sensitive detection, and substantial widening of the application ranges of the electrochemical sensing and digital micro-fluidic fields.

Microfluidic devices and methods for their use in producing pulsed microfluidic jets in a fluid environment are provided. The subject microfluidic devices are characterized by the presence of a microfluid chamber at their distal ends. The microfluid chamber is bounded by an opening at one end, a vapor producing means opposite the opening, and side walls between the opening and the vapor producing means. The microfluid chambers are further characterized in that the only way fluid can exit the microfluid chambers is through the opening. In using the subject devices to produce a fluid jet in a fluid environment, the chamber is first contacted with the fluid environment. The vapor producing means is then actuated in a manner sufficient to produce a vapor bubble in the chamber which, in turn, produces a microfluidic jet in the fluid environment. The subject devices and methods find use in a variety of different applications, e.g., cutting tissue, introducing fluid into a cell, and the like.

A micro fluidic apparatus includes (i) a first conduit; (ii) a second conduit; and (iii) a first interconnected microporous network in communication with the first and second conduits and configured to allow diffusion of gas between the first and second conduits. The microporous network comprises poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and prevents flow of aqueous fluid between the first and second conduits through the microporous network.

Disclosed are a centrifugal micro-fluidic device and an immunosorbent assay method using the same. In particular, a centrifugal micro-fluidic device having a plurality of micro-fluidic structures placed in a disc type platform to simultaneously conduct several immunosorbent assays, as well as an immunosorbent assay method using the same are provided.

The invention discloses a 3D-printing-based machining method of a three-dimensional micro-fluidic chip. The machining method comprises the following steps: (1) drawing a three-dimensional micro-runner figure; (2) layering three-dimensional runners in the three-dimensional micro-runner figure, and carrying out layer-by-layer slicing on the three-dimensional runners along the bottom surface direction parallel to a chip; (3) pouring a liquid-state chip material on a micro-runner solid structure at a previous layer, sequentially printing the micro-runner solid structure and pouring the chip material on each layer according to layering and slicing sequences of the runners, and sequentially finishing the shape printing of the runners, so as to obtain a three-dimensional runner solid structure; (4) dissolving the three-dimensional runner solid structure, so as to obtain the three-dimensional micro-fluidic chip. The invention further discloses a printing device for implementing the method. The 3D-printing-based machining method has the advantages that a machining process is simple, convenient and rapid, the production efficiency is high, the industrial mass production is easily realized, the obtained three-dimensional micro-fluidic chip does not need to be subjected to post-processing processes such as bonding, a packaging process is simplified, a three-dimensional micro-runner with a complex structure can be manufactured, and the shape and precision of the runner are controllable.

The invention provides a full-automatic and high-throughput micro-fluidic chip system and method for detecting pesticide residue, used for field detection of pesticide residue based on enzyme inhibition reaction. The full-automatic and high-throughput micro-fluidic chip system is mainly composed of a portable analytical detector and a disposable micro-fluidic chip; the plastic polymer material of the micro-fluidic chip is manufactured through existing micro-machining technology; the micro-fluidic chip is composed of a central clamping groove, an extraction chamber, a sample chamber, a reaction chamber, a detection chamber, a micro-groove, a micro-hole and a quality control bar code; reagents (comprising an extracting solution, enzyme, a colour developing agent and the like) required for detecting pesticide residue are fixed in the micro-fluidic chip; the functions of sampling automatically and quantitatively, distributing a fluid, carrying out biochemical reaction and molecular recognition and the like can be realized; a fluid operation and control module, a photoelectric detection module, a data analyzing and processing module and an information storage and communication module are integrated in the portable analytical detector; operation and control of biochemical reaction in the micro-fluidic chip and rapid analysis and detection of to-be-detected indexes and pesticide residue can be realized; and thus, the micro-fluidic chip system and the method provided by the invention are particularly applied to full-automatic and high-throughput detecting and screening of pesticide residue in the samples, such as fruits, vegetables, soil and water.

Systems and methods for cleansing blood are disclosed herein. The methods include acoustically separating undesirable particles bound to capture particles from formed elements of whole blood. After introducing the capture particles to whole blood containing undesirable particles, the whole blood and capture particles are flowed through a microfluidic separation channel. At least one bulk acoustic transducer is attached to the microfluidic separation channel. A standing acoustic wave, imparted on the channel and its contents by the bulk acoustic transducer, drives the formed elements and undesirable particles bound to capture particles to specific aggregation axes. After aggregating the particles, the formed elements exit the separation channel through a first outlet and are returned to the patient. The undesirable particles, bound to the capture particles, exit through a second outlet and can be discarded to saved for later study.

The invention relates to a method for combined synthesis of molecular engram microspheres through a micro-fluidic reactor, which is characterized in that a micro-fluidic reactor system comprises a fluid drive unit (an injection pump group), a liquid droplet or milk droplet forming unit and an ultraviolet illumination and polymerization unit, wherein the micro-fluidic reactor comprises n groups of '*'-shaped microchannels with the same structure, and can simultaneously prepare the molecular engram microspheres under n conditions or prepare the molecular engram microspheres of n template molecules; and dispersed phases and continuous phases are driven by injection pumps to enter respective microchannels and form milk droplets when encountering each other on crossings of the microchannels, and the prepared milk droplets arrive at the ultraviolet illumination unit for polymerization reaction.

The invention relates to an ion sensitive sensor comprising a silicon oxide layer and a silicon substrate which are vertically stacked, a source electrode and a drain electrode arranged on the silicon oxide layer at an interval, and a graphene layer arranged on the surface of the silicon oxide layer and between the source electrode and the drain electrode; wherein the graphene layer is respectively connected with a gear shaping part of the source electrode and a gear shaping part of the drain electrode, and the surface layer of the graphene layer is penetrated with metal oxide particles; the ion sensitive sensor also comprises a micro fluidic channel layer which is erected on the gear shaping part of the source electrode and the gear shaping part of the drain electrode, and the gear shaping part of the source electrode and the gear shaping part of the drain electrode are coated with insulating layers; the micro fluidic channel layer is matched with the graphene layer to form a cavity for accommodating an object for measurement, and is opened with through holes; and suspended grid electrodes are inserted into the through holes and extend into the cavity. The ion sensitive sensor has a structure which is similar to a field effect transistor, and has advantages of high flux, high sensitivity, short response time and the like.