Recently, tape&film based microfabrication method has been studied for rapid prototyping of microfluidic devices due to its low cost and ease of fabrication [1]. But most of the reported film-based microfluidic devices are simple single-layer patterned 2D designs, whose potential applications are limited. In this paper, we present the design, fabrication and testing results of a 3D structured m...

We have developed an integrated hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) fluorescence detector for microfluidic genetic analysis. It consists of a half-ball lens, a ZnS/YF3 multilayer optical interference filter with a pinhole, and an annular a-Si:H PIN photodiode allowing the laser excitation to pass up through the central aperture in the photodiode and the filter. Microfluidic separations of m...

An introductory overview of the use of microfluidic devices for tissue engineering is presented. After a brief description of the background of tissue engineering, different application areas of microfluidic devices are examined. Among these are methods for patterning cells, topographical control over cells and tissues, and bioreactors. Examples where microfluidic devices have been employed are...

A camera-based light scattering approach coupled with a viscoelasticity-induced cell migration technique has been used to characterize the morphological properties of erythrocytes in microfluidic flows. We have obtained the light scattering profiles (LSPs) of individual living cells in microfluidic flows over a wide angular range and matched them with scattering simulations to characterize thei...

In the kidney, the renal proximal tubule (PT) reabsorbs solutes into the peritubular capillaries through active transport. Here, we replicate this reabsorptive function in vitro by engineering a microfluidic PT. The microfluidic PT architecture comprises a porous membrane with user-defined submicron surface topography separating two microchannels representing a PT filtrate lumen and a peritubul...

We present a new type of microfluidic connector that employs a ring magnet on one side of the microfluidic chip and a disc magnet on the other side to produce a sealed connection between external tubing and inlets or outlets of microfluidic devices. The connectors are low-cost, simple to use and assemble, and reusable. We used numerical (finite element) simulations in order to optimize their ge...

As digital microfluidic biochips become widespread in safety-critical biochemical applications, system dependability emerges as a critical performance parameter. The dynamic reconfigurability inherent in digital microfluidic biochips can be utilized to bypass faulty cells, thereby supporting defect/fault tolerance. In this paper, we propose three different reconfiguration techniques and the cor...

We review a variety of microand nanoparticle formulations produced with microfluidic methods. A diverse variety of approaches to generate microscale and nanoscale particles has been reported. Here we emphasize the use of microfluidics, specifically microfluidic systems that operate in a continuous flow mode, thereby allowing continuous generation of desired particle formulations. The generation...

A monolithically integrated micro-fluidic biosensor system-on-chip (μBio-SSoC) is first realized in standard CMOS processes. This μBio-SSoC is composed of a CMOS-based microfluidic pump, a polysilicon nanowire (SiNW) biosensor, and driving circuits. With 1.5V driving voltage, the microfluidic pump drives sample-liquids to biosensing area with 34 μm/s flowing velocity. After pumping, the detecti...

In this paper we present the results of our study on the extension of communication concepts and the application of networking approaches to the microfluidic domain. Based on such study we propose the Hydrodynamic controlled Microfluidic Network (HCN) paradigm which is based on a pure hydrodynamic microfluidic switching function. The HCN paradigm can be applied to realize programmable Labs-ona-...