Microfluidic Systems Assembly

Microfluidic component assembly Microfluidic integration Microfluidic systems assembly Microfluidic systems packaging... 

Solvent-resistant polymers are attractive for a variety of microanalytical applications. For chemical sensing, solvent-resistant polymers are important as supports for deposition of solvent-based polymeric sensing formulations.1 Otherwise, a solvent that is used for the preparation of the sensor formulation can attack a plastic substrate of choice forcing the use of either less attractive substrate materials or the use of a complicated sensor-assembly process.2 3 Solvent-resistant polymers also attract interest for microfluidic applications as an alternative to glass and silicon.43 Examples of solvent-resistant polymeric microfluidic systems include those for organic-phase synthesis,6 polymer synthesis,7 studies of polymeric and colloidal... 

Making the size of each optical component for LIF as small as possible and assembling them onto microfluidic systems is a straightforward way to develop a portable analyzer as described above. Another idea to minimize the instmments is to design and fabricate all optics directly on-chip, which means that the optics such as light source [58-60], lens [61, 62], and detector [63] are part of the microchip rather than minimizing them and interfacing them with microchip. This self-contained optical microfluidic, also called optofluidic, is reviewed in the Sect. 3 of this article. 

A digital microfluidic system based on the BCD is demonstrated in Fig. 5. The array of electrodes is simply made by assembling three pin header sockets (2x5 pins with 2.54 mm pitch, < 0.1) which are commonly used in conventional electronics. To prevent leakage of a suspending medium and falling of droplets between electrodes, polydimethylsUoxane (PDMS) is used to... 

While the spaces within these channels and chambers are limited, assembly products can be ejected and used for further assembly of larger structures. Current microfabrication allows for complex microfluidic systems to be built in parallel. An array of assembly systems can be used to expand the complexity and size limits that an individual system can achieve. 

Microfluidic Assembly, Fig. 2 Illustration of stacked-module approach, where the microfluidic system is composed of stacked modules that each perform speciflc functions and are aligned and assembled together vertically in a jig... 

Many practical/commercial microfluidic systems use a combination of integrated and modular approaches for systems assembly. In these cases, portions of the system, such as capillary electrophoresis microchannels with integrated electrodes or microsensors with integrated... 

Verpoorte et al. produced one of the first microfluidic systems based on stacked silicon modules with polymer gaskets forming interfacial layers [5]. Since then, many other researchers have successfully utilized this concept for the assembly of even more complex microfluidic devices and systems. 

Jaffer S, Gray BL (2007) Mechanically assembled polymer interconnects with dead volume analysis for microfluidic systems. Proc SPIE Microfluid BioMEMS Med Microsyst 6465 1-12... 

Many individually microfabricated fluidic devices have been demonstrated and even marketed commercially. As sample volumes become smaller, and the analysis of individual cells or molecules is desired, the research instra-mentation itself decreases in size and new methods of interconnection and assembly are required. Microfluidic corrponents must often first be assembled from smaller subunits (e. g., channels, actuators) and then further assembled together to form microfluidic systems and instrumen-... 

Many practical/commercial microfluidic systems use a combination of integrated and modular approaches for systems assembly. In these cases, portions of the system, such as capillary electrophoresis microchannels with integrated electrodes, or microsensors with integrated punps and valves, may be combined with a modular approach towards the optics or other microfluidic elements. Such combinations of integrated and modular systems can be very effective resulting in the best of both worlds for a microfluidic system. 

Due to the difficult and slow nature of assembling complicated microscale devices and systems in a serial and/or deterministic way, self-assembly has generated a lot of research interest as a possible solution to overcome these problems. Many researchers have demonstrated self-assembly on the microscale. Some notable examples include self-assembly of optical components, self-assembly on non-planar surfaces, and self-assembly of microfluidic devices. One group of researchers in Taiwan has even proposed using a microfluidic system for the self-assembly of microfluidic components. Although self-assembly is utilized by many researchers, further research is needed before self-assembly becomes a commonplace microassembly method of microfluidic systems of increasing complexity. 

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