Durable Microfludic Device Systems and Methods

This technology relates to microfluidic device designs and methods for fabricating microfluidic devices having encapsulated fluidic tubing, encapsulated electrodes, and other device features. The technology makes possible the alignment of the tubing, electrodes and other device features along the same plane. Researchers have developed the technology to a readiness level(TRL) of 4, including laboratory‑scale prototypes.

BACKGROUND:
Microfluidic device (also referred to as a microchip) systems are becoming widely used analyticaltools for a variety of applications. These systems have numerous advantages, one of which is the integration of multiple processes. Integrating off-chip processes to microfluidic devices includes fabricating microfluidic devices with electrodes, fluidic tubing, and other features such as, valving techniques, pipettors, discrete injections, plate readers, and offchip detectors.

BENEFITS:
The potential advantages of this technology over existing solutions including:

• Minimize dead volume at the fluidic interconnections
• Minimize co‑planar misalignment of device features
• Minimize dilution
• Minimize analysis time
• Increase temporalresolution
• Minimize connection complexity
• Minimize the fragility of devices
• Increase the stability of fluidic interconnections

APPLICATIONS:
There a several potential applications of the technology including:

• Continuous‑flow microfluidics
• Droplet‑based microfluidics
• DNA chips and microarrays
• Molecular biology
• Clinical assays on devices
• Cell behavior and cellular biophysics
• Optics
• Fuel cells
• Biosensors and tissue engineering