Patent ID: 7097811
Filing Date: 2006-08-29
Classification: B01L,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A gravity-driven method for flow order control of a microfluidic device, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a gravity-driven flow-control apparatus comprising a reaction chamber having a collection microchannel and a plurality of reactant chambers each having an air-in vent and a flow-control microchannel, each of said plurality of reactant chambers being positioned at different distances from said collection microchannel, and each flow-control microchannel having a side connection channel connecting to an adjacent flow-control microchannel; (b) placing said apparatus in a non-vertical plane and filling said plurality of reactant chambers respectively with a plurality of reactants; and (c) arranging said gravity-driven flow-control by inclining to apparatus a position to allow gravity force to drive said plurality of reactants to flow through said flow-control microchannels which converge into said collection microchannel; wherein each side connection channel is running in a direction perpendicular to the running direction of the flow-control microchannels, the side connection channels are positioned in a step-wise pattern at different distances from said collection microchannel, and said plurality of reactants are regulated by said flow-control microchannels and the side connection channels to flow into said reaction chamber in order.