title: Evaluation of peristaltic micromixers for highly integrated microfluidic systems.
abstract: Microfluidic devices based on the multilayer soft lithography allow accurate manipulation of liquids, handling reagents at the sub-nanoliter level, and performing multiple reactions in parallel processors by adapting micromixers. Here, we have experimentally evaluated and compared several designs of micromixers and operating conditions to find design guidelines for the micromixers. We tested circular, triangular, and rectangular mixing loops and measured mixing performance according to the position and the width of the valves that drive nanoliters of fluids in the micrometer scale mixing loop. We found that the rectangular mixer is best for the applications of highly integrated microfluidic platforms in terms of the mixing performance and the space utilization. This study provides an improved understanding of the flow behaviors inside micromixers and design guidelines for micromixers that are critical to build higher order fluidic systems for the complicated parallel bio/chemical processes on a chip.
authors.affiliation: Materials Research and Education Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA.
authors.forename: Duckjong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Materials Research and Education Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA.
authors.forename: Hoon Suk
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Rho
authors.affiliation: Materials Research and Education Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA.
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jambovane
authors.affiliation: Department of Bionano Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan 15588, South Korea.
authors.forename: Soojeong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Materials Research and Education Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA.
authors.forename: Jong Wook
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D004867:Equipment Design; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D018511:Systems Integration