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US 10,527,529 B2Granted
Manipulation of microfluidic droplets
AssigneeBio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsBenjamin J. Miller, Brian Hutchison, Andrew Wilson, Jonathan William Larson, Qun Zhong, Yevgeny Yurkovetsky, Darren Roy Link, Mark Weary
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Abstract
The invention provides methods for assessing one or more predetermined characteristics or properties of a microfluidic droplet within a microfluidic channel, and regulating one or more fluid flow rates within that channel to selectively alter the predetermined microdroplet characteristic or property using a feedback control.
Claims11
A method for controlling droplet flow rate, the method comprising:
- providing a first stream of droplets moving in a microfluidic channel at a first flow rate, the first stream of droplets comprising droplets of a first species;
- providing a second stream of droplets moving within the microfluidic channel at a second flow rate, the second stream of droplets comprising droplets of a second species;
- using a sensor to detect the first flow rate and the second flow rate;
- receiving with a feedback controller the first and second flow rates;
- and
- adjusting with the feedback controller the first and second flow rates relative to each other to cause the first flow rate to equal the second flow rate to intercalate the droplets of the first species and the droplets of the second species in a merge zone in the microfluidic channel, thereby causing merging of droplets of the first species with droplets of the second species.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.