High Speed Droplet-based Delivery System for Passive Pumping in Microfluidic Devices

Pedro J. Resto; Brian Mogen; Fan Wu; Erwin Berthier; David Beebe; Justin Williams

doi:10.3791/1329

High Speed Droplet-based Delivery System for Passive Pumping in Microfluidic Devices

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Biology

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JoVE Journal Biology

High Speed Droplet-based Delivery System for Passive Pumping in Microfluidic Devices

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10:22 min

September 2, 2009

DOI: 10.3791/1329-v

Pedro J. Resto¹, Brian Mogen², Fan Wu², Erwin Berthier², David Beebe², Justin Williams²

¹Materials Science Program,University of Wisconsin-Madison, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering,University of Wisconsin-Madison

A novel microfluidic system has been developed using the phenomenon of passive pumping and a user controlled fluid delivery system. This microfluidic system has the potential to be used in a wide variety of biological applications given its low cost, ease of use, volumetric precision, high speed, repeatability and automation.

Passive pumping requires a big drop placed in the outlet and a small one placed at the inlet. This will cause the pressure difference needed to drive flow. Alternating drops of different fluids will cause packets to be flown in the channel and eventually be collected at the outlet.

High flow rates can be achieved by delivering low volume droplets at a frequency high enough to achieve a stable fluid shell at the inlet. Hi, I'm Pedro Reto from the Justin Williams lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Medicine. And I'm Brian Mogan, also from the Williams lab.

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