An electrophoretic serial to parallel converter

We describe a planar microfabricated electrokinetic device capable of distributing an incoming serial sample stream to a set of multiple parallel channels. A separation or assay can then be performed in each channel, leading to increased throughput. The device consists of a loading channel which intersects a set of parallel separation channels. We discuss a design which meets the requirements that samples can be introduced without leaking into the separation channels, and then can be moved into the separation channels at the same speed in each channel. Results obtained with fluorescein samples are shown.