Fully-embedded Flow Control Device for Microfluidic Applications

Abstract

Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field that is changing the way how biological research is being performed, enabling new applications and accelerating the existing ones. However, one of its most important drawbacks is the lack of technological tools to facilitate its widespread use. In this paper we present a new pressure and flow control device for the high-performance control of microfluidic applications. The main advantage of our device is that all pneumatic and electronic components, including the communications and control circuitry, are fully embedded inside the apparatus. Therefore, this device can be used as a standalone laboratory equipment and it can also be remotely operated from a personal computer. The microfluidic application used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed tool is the generation of alginate (1% sodium alginate solution) droplets in mineral oil. The generation of a stable stream of uniform droplets validates the good performance of our control device.