A Microfluidic Processing Unit(MPU) Based On Droplet Control

Lab-On-a-Chip(LOC)system,which is an integration of several functional microfluidic devices,is highly desirable in micro-synthesis and rapid diagnosis research because it comprises of different microfluidic devices packaged on a single chip of several square-centimeters in size.The large-scale integration and automation has become a growing trend in LOC system since 2002.In the thesis,we report a 3D printed Microfluidic Processing Unit(MPU)based on droplet control.The system is driven by an Arduino board with commands transmitted by a single QR code.It is composed of a MPU which integrated with on-chip pumps,a micro-valves system and a droplet sorting system.The MPU is also made extendable,able to be plugged with several rapidly-made microfluidic chips.The integrated system enables automation,control the generation of droplets and droplets saturation.In the body of this thesis,we will first introduce the components and the technical details of the MPU-USB chip system.In chapter 2 we give a detailed analysis about the droplet dynamics to guide the control of droplets in the following chapters.Chapter 3 brings in a microfluidic chip rapid-fabrication technology.This technology enables us to make chips with standardized I/O(input/output)pins in minutes.In the chapters followed,we will present the design and the prototype of a micro-pump,a droplet number control system,a droplets transport system separately.All these devices are realized thanks to the Computer Aided Design(CAD)and 3D multimaterial printing technology.The final work of the thesis is about the integration of all the devices described above.We will introduce the layout of the MPU and the operating principle of the automated system.The MPU system is very reliable and lost-cost.It is able to offer chips with assigned droplets for further detection.We will show some example to prove the capability of the MPU-USB chip system.The chip with wanted droplets can be used for further research.