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Large-Scale Integration of All-Glass Valves on a Microfluidic Device

In this study, we developed a method for fabricating a microfluidic device with integrated large-scale all-glass valves and constructed an actuator system to control each of the valves on the device. Such a microfluidic device has advantages that allow its use in various fields, including physical,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yalikun, Yaxiaer, Tanaka, Yo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6190260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30404259
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi7050083
Descripción
Sumario:In this study, we developed a method for fabricating a microfluidic device with integrated large-scale all-glass valves and constructed an actuator system to control each of the valves on the device. Such a microfluidic device has advantages that allow its use in various fields, including physical, chemical, and biochemical analyses and syntheses. However, it is inefficient and difficult to integrate the large-scale all-glass valves in a microfluidic device using conventional glass fabrication methods, especially for the through-hole fabrication step. Therefore, we have developed a fabrication method for the large-scale integration of all-glass valves in a microfluidic device that contains 110 individually controllable diaphragm valve units on a 30 mm × 70 mm glass slide. This prototype device was fabricated by first sandwiching a 0.4-mm-thick glass slide that contained 110 1.5-mm-diameter shallow chambers, each with two 50-μm-diameter through-holes, between an ultra-thin glass sheet (4 μm thick) and another 0.7-mm-thick glass slide that contained etched channels. After the fusion bonding of these three layers, the large-scale microfluidic device was obtained with integrated all-glass valves consisting of 110 individual diaphragm valve units. We demonstrated its use as a pump capable of generating a flow rate of approximately 0.06–5.33 μL/min. The maximum frequency of flow switching was approximately 12 Hz.