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Static control logic for microfluidic devices using pressure-gain valves

Nature Physics volume 6, pages 218–223 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Microfluidic technology has developed greatly in recent years, enabling multiple analysis systems to be placed on a microfluidic chip. However, microfluidic large-scale integration of control elements analogous to those achieved in the microelectronics industry is still a challenge. We present an integrated microfluidic valve, compatible with standard soft-lithography processes, which has a pressure gain much greater than unity. We show that this enables integration of fully static digital control logic and state storage directly on-chip, ultimately enabling microfluidic-state machines to be designed. Outputs from this digital control logic can then be used to control traditional analyte flow valves. This strategy enables much of the bulky external hardware at present used to control pneumatically driven microfluidic chips in the laboratory to be transferred onto the microfluidic chip, which drastically reduces the required number of external chip connections.

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Figure 1: Microfluidic control-logic scheme.
Figure 2: Top and cross-sectional views of the gain-valve design.
Figure 3: Performance graphs.
Figure 4: Interconnection of on-chip control logic to analyte control valves.
Figure 5: Schematics and photomicrographs of implemented logic.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge NIH R01 HG02644 Quake, 03/05/04-04/30/09. This work was funded by unrestricted funds from the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University. Finally, one of the authors, S.R.Q., co-founded a microfluidics company (Fluidigm).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4060, USA

    James A. Weaver, Don Stark & Mark A. Horowitz

  2. Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford, California 94305-4060, USA

    Jessica Melin & Stephen R. Quake

Authors
  1. James A. Weaver
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  2. Jessica Melin
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  3. Don Stark
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  4. Stephen R. Quake
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  5. Mark A. Horowitz
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Contributions

M.A.H. and S.R.Q. contributed the initial idea of using on-chip static fluidic logic to reduce chip connection counts for large analysis chips. J.A.W., J.M. and D.S. contributed equally to gain-valve and logic development, experimental measurements and manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to James A. Weaver.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Weaver, J., Melin, J., Stark, D. et al. Static control logic for microfluidic devices using pressure-gain valves. Nature Phys 6, 218–223 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1513

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