Abstract
The field of microfluidics has been struggling to obtain widespread market penetration. In order to overcome this struggle, a standardized and modular platform is introduced and applied. By providing easy-to-fabricate modular building blocks which are compatible with mass manufacturing, we decrease the gap from lab-to-fab. These standardized blocks are used in combination with an application-specific fluidic circuit board. On this board, electrical and fluidic connections are demonstrated by implementing an alternating current Coulter counter. This multipurpose building block is reusable in many applications. In this study, it identifies and counts 6 and 11 μm beads. The system is kept in a credit card-sized footprint, as a result of in-house-developed electronics and standardized building blocks. We believe that this easy-to-fabricate, credit card-sized, modular, and standardized prototype brings us closer to clinical and veterinary applications, because it provides an essential stepping stone to fully integrated point -of -care devices.
Highlights
1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; Introduction After the initial hype in microfluidics almost three decades ago, which occurred after the introduction of the micro total analysis systems, the field of microfluidics continues to struggle with obtaining widespread market penetration[1,2]
Workshop agreement 23:201614, individual microfluidic building blocks (MFBBs) that provide various functions are assembled onto a credit card-sized fluidic circuit board (FCB) (Fig. 2a, c(1))
The printed circuit board (PCB) holds all necessary electronics needed for the pseudo-differential measurement and increases the compactness of the system (Fig. 2b)
Summary
After the initial hype in microfluidics almost three decades ago, which occurred after the introduction of the micro total analysis systems, the field of microfluidics continues to struggle with obtaining widespread market penetration[1,2]. Many lab-on-a-chip devices are presented in the literature, the term chip-in-alab fits better with prototypes currently demonstrated in the microfluidic field[4]. Even though there are a few frontier commercialized devices (Abbott i-STAT and DNA PCR machines), most lab-on-a-chip devices are still stuck at a technology readiness level (TRL) of 3 or 4. If these early prototype devices would become available commercially, they could serve several niche markets and start to
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