Patent ID: 7273590
Filing Date: 2007-09-25
Classification: B01L,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A gravity-driven apparatus for controlling the flow order of reactants in a microfluidic device, comprising an elongated flat structure including: a reaction chamber having a winding collection microchannel; a plurality of reactant chambers each having an air-in vent and a flow-control microchannel, each flow-control microchannel having at least one section running in the longitudinal direction of the flat structure, each of said reactant chambers being located at a different distance in the longitudinal direction from said winding collection microchannel, and the flow-control microchannels of said plurality of reactant chambers being arranged to converge into said winding collection microchannel; and a plurality of side connection channels each connecting two adjacent flow-control microchannels, said side connection channels running in a direction normal to said longitudinal direction and each being located at a different distance in the longitudinal direction from said winding collection microchannel so that said side connection channels are connected only through corresponding flow-control microchannels; wherein a plurality of U-shaped structures is formed in said apparatus with each U-shaped structure having a bottom formed by a side connection channel and two arms formed by upper portions of two connected flow-control microchannels, and the U-shaped structures are connected and partially overlapped through flow-control microchannels with the bottoms of the U-shaped structures being located at different distances in the longitudinal direction from said winding collection microchannels for controlling the flow order of reactants.