Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: A new microfluidic pump, termed a reflow pump, is designed to operate with a sub-μl sample volume and transport it back and forth between two pneumatically actuated reservoirs through a flow channel typically containing one or more sensor surfaces. The ultimate motivation is to efficiently use the small sample volume in conjunction with convection to maximize analyte flux to the sensor surface(s) in order to minimize sensor response time. In this paper, we focus on the operational properties of the pumps themselves (rather than the sensor surfaces), and demonstrate both two-layer and three-layer polydimethylsiloxane reflow pumps. For the three-layer pump, we examine the effects of reservoir actuation pressure and actuation period, and demonstrate average volumetric flow rates as high as 500 μl/min. We also show that the two-layer design can pump up to 93% of the sample volume during each half period and demonstrate integration of a reflow pump with a single-chip microcantilever array to measure maximum flow rate.
Source: Biomicrofluidics
DOI: 10.1063/1.4926583
Authors: Bryan Haslam, Long-Fang Tsai, Ryan R. Anderson, Seunghyun Kim, Weisheng Hu, Gregory P. Nordin
Institution: Brigham Young University
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1599588025