NU 2015-147

Inventors

Paul Umbanhowar*

Kevin Lynch

Short Description

A microfluidic method of levitating and controlling the position and motion of a droplet above a surface

Abstract

Northwestern researchers have developed a microfluidic method that allows scientists to manipulate nanoliter-scale droplets for a variety of applications. The ability to work with such small liquid volumes drives technology in many fields vital to our societal well-being including medicine, chemistry, and biology. Increasingly, keys to success have been found in reducing the volume of liquid required per operation, increasing the speed of operations, parallelizing operations, and decreasing operation cost. Driven by these requirements, miniature liquid manipulation lab-on-a-chip (LoC) devices have been developed that can pump, meter, mix, and separate liquids with volumetric resolution on the order of nanoliters. However, all existing technologies have a couple of required limitations: (1) require droplets to be in intimate contact with the LoC structure or be immersed in a second carrier liquid; and (2) necessitate that the surface of the LoC be patterned using physical or chemical methods to direct the transport of the droplets. This Northwestern technology is a non-contact method for manipulating liquid droplets utilizing vibration to levitate and control its motion regardless of the chemical and biological properties of the fluid.

Applications

• Drug efficacy and interaction screening
• Environmental and biological contaminants screening
• Medical diagnostics
• Combinatorial chemistry
• Microfluidic mixing

Advantages

• Minimized potential for contamination
• Repeat usage of device without concern for cross-contamination
• Programmable droplet trajectory
• No requirement for LoC surface patterning
• Capability of simultaneous movement of multiple drops in massively parallel operations
• Compatibility with most chemical and biological properties of a liquid
• Compatible with LoC technology using optical and capacitive sensors
• No requirement for carrier liquids

IP Status

Provisional patent application has been filed.