Dispensing fluids technology

The leading dispense jetting technology available today utilizes a pneumatic piston with a ball tip to impel fluid through a narrow orifice at the end of the jet nozzle as shown in Figure 10-4. 

Looking into the past, the first microfluidic technology was developed in the early 1950s when efforts to dispense small amounts of liquids in the nanoliter and sub-nanoliter range were made, providing the basics of today s ink-jet technology [4]. In terms of fluid propulsion within microchannels with sub-millimeter cross sections, the year 1979 set a milestone when a miniaturized gas chromatograph (GC) was realized on a silicon (Si) wafer... 

Jetting technology is one of the more recent technologies in automated fluid dispensing and is quickly evolving. These technologies eject discrete volumes of materials from a nozzle and do not rely on the surface tension of the fluid on the dispensed surface to pull the fluid away from the nozzle. 

Automated Fluid Dispensing for Fuel Cell Manufacture Gasket and Seal Dispense Technology... 

Voxeljet Technology GmbH [39] offers a systems base on ink-jet dispensing of binder fluid onto particles, similar to the technology developed by MIT except the binder is not burned off after the part is printed. The build envelope is 85 cm x 45 cm x 50 cm. They also have a system that prints a water soluble wax that is ink-jet printed to form the boundary of a poured (in layers) wax part. 

This dielectrophoresis backgroxmd only serves as a brief overview these technologies need to be explored in more detail before incorporating them into a Lab-on-a-Chip system. Lab-on-a-Qiip systems integrate techniques of small fluid and sample handling with detection or process capabilities. Dielectrophoresis can be incorporated into these systems to manipulate, separate, or trap cells as well as control small amoxmts of fluid. This technology can be used to trap cells for additional analysis, separate cell types based on dielectric properties, dispense picoliter droplets, or used for similar manipulative applications. 

---