Patent ID: 8062611

Claim:
A microfluidic processing device comprising: a substrate; a plurality of microfluidic fluid retainment regions formed in or on the substrate, comprising at least a first fluid retainment region and a second fluid retainment region; at least one microfluidic fluid flow passageway located between the first fluid retainment region and the second fluid retainment region; and a dissolvable fluid flow modulator located in the at least one microfluidic fluid flow passageway at least partially separating the first fluid retainment region from the second fluid retainment region, wherein said fluid flow modulator is a composite comprising at least: a dissolvable first component, wherein the first component is a dissolvable sequestering material, and wherein the first component comprises at least one of a polyethylene glycol material, a dissolvable organic compound, a polysaccharide, and a cellulose derivative; and a second component comprising at least one reaction component for a desired reaction, wherein the dissolvable first component is configured to dissolve to release the second component for the desired reaction, wherein the second component is encapsulated by the first component, the second component is embedded by the first component; the second component is uniformly dispersed throughout the first component, the second component is non-uniformly dispersed throughout the first component, or a combination thereof, and wherein the second component comprises at least one of an enzyme, a catalyst, an oligonucleotide, and their salts.