Patent ID: 9409172
Filing Date: 2016-08-09
CPC Classification: B01J,B01L,G01N,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. A microchip comprising: a substrate having a main surface extending in a y-axis direction and an x-axis direction; a channel formed in the substrate permitting a sheath liquid and a sample liquid to flow therethrough, the channel having first walls opposed to one another in a z-axis direction that is perpendicular to the main surface of the substrate, and having second walls opposed to one another in the y-axis direction; and wherein liquid feeding is performed in a condition where a laminar flow of the sample liquid introduced into the channel is surrounded by a laminar flow of the sheath liquid, wherein the channel includes a narrow-down section extending in the x-axis direction, extending in the x-axis direction, is formed as an inclined surface extending in the x-axis direction, so that the area of the channel in a section orthogonal to extending in the x-axis direction, decreases gradually extending in the x-axis direction, and where the second walls of the channel are formed to exhibit gradual constriction in the y-axis direction as said channel extends in the x-axis direction, and wherein the inclined surface becomes higher in the z-axis direction along the downstream direction, wherein the sheath liquid laminar flow and the sample liquid laminar flow are configured to be fed by being isotropically reduced and narrowed down in the y-axis direction as said channel extends in the x-axis direction while being reduced and narrowed down in the z-axis direction, wherein an inclination angle of at least one of the first walls of the channel at the narrow-down section and a constriction angle of the second walls of the channel at the narrow-down section are equal to each other.