Integrated Vortex Micropumps and Active Micromixers in Polymer Substrates for Automating Bio-fluidic Manipulation

This paper presents a microfluidic mixing module array developed for bio-fluid/chemical delivery and mixing. Vortex micropumps, microchannels and pillared-surface diaphragm (PSD) active micromixers were successfully integrated into a single polymer-based microfluidic chip, consisting of three mixing modules. The pumping characteristics of the vortex micropump were investigated with both analytical and experimental results. Experiments were also conducted to examine the factors affecting the PSD-based mixing. The integrated mixing module further demonstrated the feasibility of chemical mixing and concentration control. An integrated fluidic system was shown successfully to deliver bio-fluid for real-time SPR based detection. A computer-controlled fluid manipulation system is also proposed for the real-time microfluidic operation control. The digitally controllability of the pumping and mixing operations could potentially improve the accuracy and efficiency, and hence, the functionality of the integrated microfluidic system.