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US 12,758,976 B2Granted
Ultra high efficiency microfluidic platform
AssigneeThe Texas A&M University System
InventorsArum Han, Adrian Guzman, Han Zhang, Jose Wippold, Jing Dai
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Abstract
A combination micro/macro-fluidic analysis system with one or more of a droplet transition unit, a droplet cleaving unit, a droplet synchronization, and a merging unit to enable highly efficient complex droplet microfluidic assays.
Claims18
A droplet production system, comprising:
- a droplet cleaving unit comprising two or more microfluidic channels, wherein a first continuous-phase fluid flows in a first microfluidic channel, a second fluid comprising a first set of multi-phase emulsion droplets flows in a second microfluidic channel, and wherein the first continuous-phase fluid in the first microfluidic channel is cleaved into a second set of droplets through the use of the multi-phase emulsion droplets in the second microfluidic channel;
- a droplet auto-synchronization unit configured to places the first set of multi-phase emulsion droplets in close proximity to the second set of droplets generated from cleaving of the continuous-phase flow to form paired droplets, wherein a pairing ratio between the first set and second set of droplets varies depending on the conditions utilized in the droplet production system;
- and
- a merging unit that merges the paired droplets into a single droplet;
- and wherein the droplet production system is configured to achieve high-efficiency droplet pairing and merging.
2 more elements
A fluid sample testing system, comprising:
- the droplet cleaving unit comprising two or more microfluidic channels, wherein a fluid sample flows in a first microfluidic channel, a first fluid comprising a first set of multi-phase emulsion droplets flows in a second microfluidic channel, and wherein the fluid sample in the first microfluidic channel is configured to be cleaved into a second set of droplets through the use of the multi-phase emulsion droplets in the second microfluidic channel;
- a droplet auto-synchronization unit configured to places the first set of multi-phase emulsion droplets from the first fluid in close proximity to the second set of droplets generated from the fluid sample by cleaving to form paired droplets, wherein a pairing ratio between the first set of droplets and second set of droplets varies depending on the conditions utilized in the fluid sample testing system;
- and
- a merging unit that merges the paired droplets into a single merged droplet-, wherein the fluid sample testing system is configured to achieve high-efficiency droplet pairing and merging.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.