System and method for microfluidic flow control
AssigneeCanon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc.
InventorsShulin Zeng, Gregory A. Dale
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for controlling fluid flow within a microchannel includes a fluid circuit comprising a fluid outlet well and one or more fluid inlet wells, all in communication with a microchannel. A negative pressure differential is applied to the outlet well and fluid flow from an inlet well into the microchannel is controlled by opening or closing the inlet well to atmospheric pressure. To stop fluid flow from the inlet well, a negative pressure differential may be applied to the inlet well to equalize pressure between the inlet and outlet wells. By sequentially opening and closing different inlet wells to atmosphere, controlled amounts of different reagents can be serially introduced into the microchannel.
Claims10
A system for sequentially introducing predetermined amounts of different reaction fluids into a microfluidic circuit comprising:
- a. a microfluidic circuit comprising a microchannel, a plurality of inlet ports in fluid communication with the microchannel and through which different reaction fluids are introduced into the microchannel and an outlet port in fluid communication with the microchannel through which fluid from the microchannel is collected;
- b. at least one pressure source in selective communication with said outlet port and said plurality of inlet ports;
- and
- c. at least one valve mechanism operatively associated with said plurality of inlet ports and in communication with said pressure source, each valve mechanism being adapted to sequentially connect each of said plurality of inlet ports to a pressure generated by said pressure source for a predetermined period of time, causing a predetermined amount of fluid to flow from the inlet port into the microchannel, and then connecting said inlet port to a different pressure to substantially stop the flow of fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.