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US 7,708,949 B2Granted
Method and apparatus for fluid dispersion
AssigneesPresident and Fellows of Harvard College, Governing Council of the Univ. of Toronto, The
InventorsHoward A. Stone, Shelley L. Anna, Nathalie Bontoux, Darren R. Link, David A. Weitz, Irina Gitlin, Eugenia Kumacheva, Piotr Garstecki, Willow Diluzio, George M. Whitesides
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A microfluidic method and device for focusing and/or forming discontinuous sections of similar or dissimilar size in a fluid is provided. The device can be fabricated simply from readily-available, inexpensive material using simple techniques.
Claims17
A method comprising:
- providing a microfluidic interconnected region having an upstream portion, a downstream portion, and a dimensional restriction defining the downstream portion of the microfluidic interconnected region, the interconnected region being connected at its upstream portion to two or more microfluidic inlet channels, wherein the dimensional restriction is formed by at least an extension of a wall defining the interconnected region, the extension being in a direction transverse to the flow of fluid in the interconnected region;
- and
- creating discontinuous sections of a subject fluid at the interconnected region, at least some of the discontinuous sections having a maximum dimension of less than 100 microns.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.