Patent ID: 8123044

Claim:
A system for sorting particles, comprising: a microfluidic chip containing a plurality of microsorters, each microsorter having an actuation port for interfacing with a displacement actuator for selectively actuating the microsorter to deflect a particle having a predetermined characteristic from a stream of particles, wherein at least one of the actuation ports of a first microsorter is located in a different coordinate along the chip from an actuation port of a second microsorter; an external actuator packing block holding a plurality of displacement actuators and a plurality of actuation devices such that the location of each actuation device in the block corresponds to the location of an associated actuator port in the microsorter chip when the block and chip are brought together, wherein each of the plurality of displacement actuators is formed by a plurality of piezo-electric elements in a stacked relationship and each of the plurality of displacement actuators is coupled to a respective one of the plurality of actuation devices; and an electric connector mounted to each stack of piezo-electric elements.