Thermally-actuated microfluidic membrane valve for point-of-care applications
File(s)s41378-021-00260-3.pdf (868.55 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Sesen, Muhsincan
Rowlands, Christopher
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Microfluidics has enabled low volume biochemistry reactions to be carried out at the point-of-care. A key component in microfluidics is the microfluidic valve. Microfluidic valves are not only useful for directing flow at intersections but also allow mixtures/dilutions to be tuned real-time and even provide peristaltic pumping capabilities. In the transition from chip-in-a-lab to lab-on-a-chip, it is essential to ensure that microfluidic valves are designed to require less peripheral equipment and that they are transportable. In this paper, a thermally-actuated microfluidic valve is presented. The valve itself is fabricated with off-the-shelf components without the need for sophisticated cleanroom techniques. It is shown that multiple valves can be controlled and operated via a power supply and an Arduino microcontroller; an important step towards transportable microfluidic devices capable of carrying out analytical assays at the point-of-care. It is been calculated that a single actuator costs less than$1, this highlights the potential of the presented valve for scaling out. The valve operation is demonstrated by adjusting the ratio of a water/dye mixture in a continuous flow microfluidic chip with Y-junction channel geometry. The power required to operate one microfluidic valve has been characterised both theoretically and experimentally. Cyclical operation of the valve has been demonstrated for 65 hours with 585 actuations. The presented valve is capable of actuating rectangular microfluidic channels of 500μm×50μm with an expected temperature increase of up to 5°C. The fastest actuation times achieved were 2seconds for valve closing (heating) and 9 seconds for valve opening (cooling).
Date Issued
2021-06-15
Date Acceptance
2021-03-17
Citation
Microsystems and Nanoengineering, 2021, 7 (48), pp.1-12
ISSN
2055-7434
Publisher
Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com]
Start Page
1
End Page
12
Journal / Book Title
Microsystems and Nanoengineering
Volume
7
Issue
48
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction
in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if
changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If
material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain
permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if
changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If
material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain
permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41378-021-00260-3
Grant Number
212490/Z/18/Z
EP/S016538/1
EP/V520354/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Instruments & Instrumentation
Science & Technology - Other Topics
MICROVALVES
MICROPUMPS
GENERATION
PRESSURES
DEVICES
SYSTEM
SAMPLE
ARRAY
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-06-15