Digitally Controllable Large-Scale Integrated Microfluidic Systems

Active microfluidic mixers, micro vortex pumping devices, tesla microvalves, and microchannels were successfully fabricated using a single polymer based micro molding process. These individual microfluidic devices were then integrated to perform precise fluid delivery, cutting, and mixing. Continuous and discretized pumping of fluids in microchannels can be achieved by the vortex micropumps that use rotating impellers. The fluid mixing is based on the vertical mechanical vibration of membranes driven by PZT actuator. Tesla microvalves were built to eliminate the backward flow by increasing the unidirectional back pressure. Experiments were conducted to investigate the performance of the mixing, pumping, and valving systems. The large-scale integration of microfluidic components using our micropump, microvalve and micromixer is also described in this paper.