title: Cooperative suction by vertical capillary array pump for controlling flow profiles of microfluidic sensor chips.
abstract: A passive pump consisting of integrated vertical capillaries has been developed for a microfluidic chip as an useful component with an excellent flow volume and flow rate. A fluidic chip built into a passive pump was used by connecting the bottoms of all the capillaries to a top surface consisting of a thin layer channel in the microfluidic chip where the thin layer channel depth was smaller than the capillary radius. As a result the vertical capillaries drew fluid cooperatively rather than independently, thus exerting the maximum suction efficiency at every instance. This meant that a flow rate was realized that exhibited little variation and without any external power or operation. A microfluidic chip built into this passive pump had the ability to achieve a quasi-steady rather than a rapidly decreasing flow rate, which is a universal flow characteristic in an ordinary capillary.
authors.affiliation: NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa 2430198, Japan. horiuchi.tsutomu@lab.ntt.co.jp
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Horiuchi
authors.forename: Katsuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Michiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seyama
authors.forename: Suzuyo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Emi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tamechika
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D002197:Capillary Action; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D055616:Microtechnology; D013396:Suction