title: Microfluidic proportional flow controller.
abstract: Precise flow control in microfluidic chips is important for many biochemical assays and experiments at microscale. While several technologies for controlling fluid flow have been implemented either on- or off-chip, these can provide either high-speed or high-precision control, but seldom could accomplish both at the same time. Here we describe a new on-chip, pneumatically activated flow controller that allows for fast and precise control of the flow rate through a microfluidic channel. Experimental results show that the new proportional flow controllers exhibited a response time of approximately 250 ms, while our numerical simulations suggest that faster actuation down to approximately 50 ms could be achieved with alternative actuation schemes.
authors.affiliation: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA 02129, USA.
authors.forename: Harrison
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Prentice-Mott
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toner
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Irimia