Optoelectronic reconfigurable microchannels

This work reports a new technology providing light-controlled creation, annihilation and reconfiguration of microchannels within seconds. The technology is based on local thawing of a solidified compound using a low power optoelectronic effect. A light pattern of a microchannel network is projected onto an optoelectronic reconfigurable chip containing frozen liquid resulting in the formation of corresponding microchannels. When the light pattern is modified, the microchannel network reconfigures accordingly. Both single-phase and two-phase flows have been demonstrated in reconfigurable microchannels. Moreover, several aqueous phase compounds and nonaqueous phase compounds, including water, have been successfully used as working media.