Frequency-specific flow control in microfluidic circuits with passive elastomeric features

Electronic control of elastomeric microfluidic circuits with shape memory actuators.

Recently, sophisticated fluidic circuits with hundreds of independent valves have been built by using multi-layer soft-lithography to mold elastomers. However, this shrinking of microfluidic circuits has not been matched by a corresponding miniaturization of the actuation and interfacing elements that control the circuits; while the fluidic circuits are small ( approximately 10-100 micron wide ...

Flow switching in microfluidic networks using passive features and frequency tuning.

Manipulating fluids in microchips remains a persistent challenge in the development of inexpensive and portable point-of-care diagnostic tools. Flow in microfluidic chips can be controlled via frequency tuning, wherein the excitation frequency of a pressure source is matched with the characteristic frequencies of network branches. The characteristic frequencies of each branch arise from couplin...

Elastomeric Electronics: A Microfluidic Approach

Nonlinear pressure-flow relationships for passive microfluidic valves.

An analytical solution is presented for the nonlinear pressure-flow relationship of deformable passive valves, which are formed by bonding a deformable film over etched channels separated by a weir. A fluidic pathway connecting the channels is opened when the upstream pressure creates a tunnel along a predefined narrow strip where the film is not bonded to the weir. When the width of the strip ...

Elastomeric microfluidic diode and rectifier work with Newtonian fluids.

We report on two microfluidic elastomeric autoregulatory devices-a diode and a rectifier. They exhibit physically interesting and complex nonlinear behaviors (saturation, bias-dependent resistance, and rectification) with a Newtonian fluid. Due to their autoregulatory properties, they operate without active external control. As a result, they enable increased microfluidic device density and ove...