On-chip pressure sensor using single-layer concentric chambers

A vision-based on-chip sensor for sensing local pressure inside a microfluidic device is proposed and evaluated in this paper. The local pressure is determined from the change of color intensity in the sensing chamber which is pre-filled with colored fluid. The working principle of the sensor is based on polydimethylsiloxane deformation. The pressure at the point of interest is guided into a deformation chamber, where the structural stiffness is softened by chamber geometry, and thus, the chamber deforms as a result of pressure changes. Such deformation is transmitted to the sensing chamber, a same-layer concentric inside the deformation chamber. The deformation in the sensing chamber causes the colored fluid flowing in or out the chamber and leads to different color intensity from the top view through a microscope. Experimental evaluations on static and dynamic responses by regulated input pressures were conducted. The correlation in static response is 0.97 while the dynamic responses are successfully observed up to 16 Hz. The greatest advantage is that the local pressure can be directly seen without any additional hardware or electricity. The whole sensor is on a single-layer microfluidic design, so that the fabrication is simple, consistent, and low-cost. The single-layer design also provides the convenience of easy integration for existing microfluidic systems.