International Business Machines Corporation

Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne

Yuksel Temiz

Emmanuel Delamarche

Jaione Tirapu Azpiroz

Claudius Feger

Sufi Zafar

Onur Gökçe

Tobias Guenzler

Tino Treiber

Mathias B Steiner

Ricardo Luis Ohta

Robert Dean Lovchik

Onur Goekce

Yulieth Cristina Arango

Aaron Roger Cox

Patrick Ruch

Jonas R Weiss

Govind V Kaigala

Yusuf Leblebici

Thomas Gervais

Carlotta Guiducci

Michel Lim

Marie Salva

Elisa Hemmig

Marco Rocca

Bilge Eker

A microfluidic device includes a microchannel, which defines a flow path for a liquid. It further includes a liquid-pinning trench, which is arranged so as to form an opening that extends across the flow path. In addition, the device includes an electrode extending across the flow path so as to at least partly overlap the trench. The trench and overlapping electrode make up an electrowetting gate, which allows an efficient, reliable, and easy-to-implement flow control mechanism. In addition, such a mechanism requires relatively low actuation voltages (less than 10 V) to resume the liquid flow. Thus, a microfluidic chip having gates such as described herein can be controlled with a portable system, e.g., a smartphone connectivity. The present devices may notably be embodied as point-of-care diagnostic devices. Related devices, as well as methods of operation and methods of fabrication of such devices, are also disclosed.

Simple flow control for microfluidic devices

Techniques regarding one or more microfluidic chips with integrated electronic sensors are provided. For example, one or more embodiments described herein can regard an apparatus that can comprise a conductive plug of a reference electrode structure, the conductive plug extending from within a microfluidic channel to within a reference fluid holding chamber that is in fluid isolation from the microfluidic channel.

Microfluidic chips with integrated electronic sensors

According to a first aspect, the present invention is embodied as a method of processing a filtered liquid with a microfluidic device. The method includes positioning a porous filtering medium with respect to the microfluidic device, so as to allow a flow path between the filtering medium and a channel of the microfluidic device. The method further includes introducing a liquid in the porous filtering medium for the liquid to advance along the filtering medium and be filtered by the medium. The method further includes applying compression to the filtering medium to extract a given volume of the filtered liquid from the filtering medium, where the extracted liquid volume reaches said channel via the flow path. The method further includes processing the extracted volume with the microfluidic device.

Bridging liquid between microfluidic elements without closed channels

An embodiment for a microfluidic device is provided. The device comprises two areas, arranged side-by-side, and a trigger channel. They include a first area, which is delimited by a first liquid pinning barrier, and a second area, which is delimited by a second liquid pinning barrier. The latter extends parallel to the first liquid pinning barrier to delimit a corridor. The trigger channel extends through the corridor between the two areas. In addition, the trigger channel connects the first liquid pinning barrier with the second liquid pinning barrier, allowing a first liquid pinned at the first liquid pinning barrier and a second liquid pinned at the second liquid pinning barrier to be contacted, each, by a reverse flow of the second liquid in the trigger channel and thereby start mixing at a level of the corridor, in operation. The invention is further directed to related methods of operation.

Microfluidic devices with capillary dilutors

An assembly is provided for interfacing with a microfluidic chip having at least one microscopic channel configured to receive a liquid sample for analysis. The assembly includes a chip carrier, an electronics module, an optical module, and a mechanical module. The chip carrier includes a base and a cover defining a cavity to receive the microfluidic chip. The electronics module includes a signal generator which applies at least one electrokinetic signal electrode(s) of the chip. The optical module includes an excitation radiation source which causes excitation radiation to impinge on the sample, and an emission radiation detector which detects radiation emitted from the sample. The mechanical module includes a chip-carrier receiving structure, relatable with respect to the optical module for focus and at least one degree of translational freedom.

Operation of diagnostic devices involving microchannels and electrodes

Embodiments of the invention provide a microfluidic chip having microfluidic structures formed on a surface. The structures form an input channel, an output channel, auxiliary channels, and a hydraulic resistor structure connecting the input channel to the output channel via the auxiliary channels. The resistor structure includes N flow resistor portions (N&#x2265;2), which are connected to the auxiliary channels. The chip further includes at least N&#x2212;1 actuatable valves, which are arranged in respective ones of the auxiliary channels. The actuation state of the valves can determine the effective hydraulic resistance of the resistor structure. The valves can be electrogates, each including a liquid-pinning trench arranged in a respective one of the auxiliary channels that define a flow path for a liquid introduced therein, so as to form an opening that extends across said flow path. Each electrogate can further include an electrode extending across the flow path.

Programmable hydraulic resistor array for microfluidic chips

A microfluidic device includes a surface, which defines a flow path for a liquid, and a liquid inlet, which is in fluid communication with said surface, so as for a liquid introduced via the inlet to advance along a propagation direction on the flow path. Also included are a set of two or more electrical contacts, and a set of electrodes which include sensing portions that extend across the flow path, transversally to the propagation direction. The electrodes are connected to the two or more electrical contacts. Also included are material spots on at least some of the sensing portions of the electrodes. Still, material spots of a same material are only on a subset of the sensing portions of the electrodes, so that the spots can alter an electrical signal detected from the electrical contacts, upon a liquid advancing along the flow path, in operation of the device.

Covert codes based on electrical sensing of patterned materials in microfluidic devices

The present invention is notably directed to methods of fabrication of a microfluidic chip package or assembly (), comprising: providing (S) a substrate () having at least one block () comprising one or more microfluidic structures on a face (F) of the substrate; partially cutting (S) into the substrate to obtain partial cuts (), such that a residual thickness of the substrate at the level of the partial cuts () enables singulation of said at least one block (); cleaning (S) said at least one block; and applying (S-S) a cover-film () to cover said at least one block (), whereby at least one covered block is obtained, the applied cover film still enabling singulation of each covered block, wherein each covered block corresponds to a microfluidic chip after singulation. The present invention is further directed to microfluidic chips, packing or assembly, obtainable with such methods.

Fabrication of a microfluidic chip package or assembly with separable chips

Technology for managing objects. A method is applied to a set of objects, for example, in view of commissioning such objects. The method includes patterning a surface of each object of a set of objects to be managed. The patterning is accomplished by using hard particles to make indentations in a surface of each object of the set of object, with the pattern formed on each object being a unique physical fingerprint that can be used to identify the object when performing various manage method(s) on the objects.

Mechanically stamped unique features for authenticity and provenance tracking

A portable sensor includes a probe and a housing. The probe comprises a sensing part with one or more sensing elements, while the housing is designed to secure the probe such that the sensing part extends outside the housing. The portable sensor defines a gap between the probe and a surface of the housing that is configured to receive a rim of a liquid container such that the portable sensor can slot onto a rim of a liquid container, so as to allow hand-free measurements.

Self-supported portable sensor for liquids

A test device is configured for diagnostic testing and includes an optical readable medium, in turn including a pattern of spots of material arranged on a surface of the device. Several patterns may be provided. The patterns accordingly formed may be human and/or machine readable. They may notably encode security information, e.g., indicating whether the device has already been used. The spots may notably be inkjet spotted. In addition, a method is provided for decoding information encoded in a pattern of such a test device. In embodiments, liquid is introduced in the device, which comprises additional spots having a substantially different solubility than spots forming the actual pattern. Thus, the additional spots get solubilized in and flushed by the liquid as the latter wets them, and an initially hidden pattern may be read, which is formed of the remaining spots (not solubilized). Encoding methods are also provided.

Diagnostic test device with patterned material spots

The invention is notably directed to a microfluidic device. The device comprises a substrate with a microchannel formed as a groove on a main surface of the substrate. The device further comprises one or more conduits extending parallel to the main surface of the substrate, and from a lateral surface of the substrate up to a lateral wall of the microchannel. The one or more conduits are configured so as to allow insertion of one or more electrodes therein, respectively, and such that an end of each of the one or more electrodes can reach into the microchannel. The invention is further directed to related sets of components, which include the above microfluidic device, as well as a housing, with electronics, and, possibly, a porous support (e.g., a membrane) and a cap. Biosensing applications are notably contemplated. The invention is further directed to methods of operating a microfluidic device.

Microfluidic device with laterally insertable electrodes

Method, apparatus, and computer program product for a microfluidic channel having a cover opposite its bottom, the cover allowing visual inspection inside the channel, and having electrodes with patterned planar conducting materials, integrated onto its bottom. Using the planar conducting materials, once a fluid sample with suspended microparticles is applied into the channel, highly localized modulated electric field distributions are generated inside the channel and the fluid sample. This generated field causes inducing of dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces such that the DEP forces gradually increase along the length of the channel occupied by the electrodes. These DEP forces counteract the hydrodynamic drag of the flow acting on the particles suspended in the fluid. Because of the induced forces, micro/nano-particles in the fluid sample are deflected at locations in the microchannel that are a function of the particles velocity and this effect is captured by an image sensing device.

Device and method for flow and bead speed characterization in microfluidic devices

The present invention is notably directed to method of fabrication of a microfluidic chip, comprising: providing a substrate, a face of which is covered by an electrically insulating layer; obtaining a resist layer covering one or more selected portions of the electrically insulating layer, at least a remaining portion of said electrically insulating layer not being covered by the resist layer; partially etching with a wet etchant a surface of the remaining portion of the electrically insulating layer to create a recess and/or an undercut under the resist layer; depositing the electrically conductive layer on the etched surface, such that the electrically conductive layer reaches the created recess and/or undercut; and removing the resist layer to expose a portion of the electrically insulating layer adjoining a contiguous portion of the electrically conductive layer. The present invention is further directed to microfluidic chips obtainable by such methods.

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Zug, Switzerland

Yuksel Temiz