title: Multiple injection techniques for microfluidic sample handling.
abstract: This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation into electrokinetic focusing flow injection for bioanalytical applications on 1 x N (i.e., 1 sample inlet port and N outlet ports) and M x N (i.e., M sample inlet ports and N outlet ports) microfluidic chips. A novel device is presented which integrates two important microfluidic phenomena, namely electrokinetic focusing and valveless flow switching within multiported microchannels. The study proposes a voltage control model which achieves electrokinetic focusing in a prefocusing sample injection system and which allows the volume of the sample to be controlled. Using the developed methods, the study shows how the sample may be prefocused electrokinetically into a narrow stream prior to being injected continuously into specified outlet ports. The microfluidic chips presented within this paper possess an exciting potential for use in a variety of techniques, including high-throughput chemical analysis, cell fusion, fraction collection, fast sample mixing, and many other applications within the micrototalanalysis systems field.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Materials Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Lung-Ming
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Ruey-Jen
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Gwo-Bin
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yu-Jen
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Pan
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D007525:Isoelectric Focusing; D008433:Mathematics; D044085:Microfluidics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013048:Specimen Handling