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US 10,130,950 B2Granted
Microfluidic droplet packing
AssigneeBio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsTony Hung, Sepehr Kiani, Scott Powers, Adnan Esmail
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for confining droplets within a microfluidic channel as well as systems and methods for packing droplets are provided. More specifically, a system and method are provided for controlling the introduction and removal of oil into a microfluidic channel in order to control where drops are allowed to flow within that channel.
Claims13
A method of controlling aqueous droplets in an emulsion comprising a non-aqueous continuous fluid, the method comprising,
- providing a microfluidic channel defined by two substantially parallel or non-parallel walls, wherein each wall comprises two or more opposing ports, wherein said microfluidic channel contains an emulsion comprising aqueous droplets in the continuous non-aqueous fluid, and wherein the two or more opposing ports include an upstream port and a downstream port and wherein the upstream port in each wall introduces non-emulsion continuous non-aqueous fluid into the microfluidic channel at a first pressure and wherein the downstream port in each wall introduces non-emulsion continuous non-aqueous fluid into the microfluidic channel at a second pressure;
- causing the emulsion to flow from an upstream position in the microfluidic channel to a downstream position in the channel while introducing non-emulsion continuous non-aqueous fluid into the microfluidic channel from the ports, such that the aqueous droplets in the emulsion are moved away from the walls of the microfluidic channel at the downstream position and are more densely packed at the downstream position compared to the upstream position.
A method of removing continuous non-aqueous fluid from an emulsion, the method comprising
- providing a microfluidic channel defined by two substantially parallel walls, wherein at least one wall comprises one or more port(s), wherein the ports provide fluid communication between the microfluidic channel and one or more side channels, wherein said microfluidic channel contains an emulsion comprising aqueous droplets in the continuous non-aqueous fluid;
- causing the emulsion to flow from an upstream position in the microfluidic channel to a downstream position in the microfluidic channel while removing non-emulsion continuous non-aqueous fluid from the emulsion in the microfluidic channel via the port(s), wherein opposing walls of the side channels are parallel and the microfluidic channel form angles less than 90 degrees as measured from the side channel and the upstream position of the microfluidic channel, thereby removing continuous non-aqueous fluid from the emulsion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.