Self-Aligning Microfluidic Interconnects with Low Dead Volume

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel self-aligning fluidic interconnection technique with low dead volume and pressure drop for generic microfluidic systems and CE chips. We have successfully designed, fabricated and characterized two self-aligning fluidic interconnection techniques in this work, both resulting in low dead volume and low pressure drop across the interconnects. The first technique is a serial assembly technique, in which each fluidic interconnect is assembled individually, exhibiting a pressure drop of 0.14 psi at a flow rate of 100 μl/min. The second technique is a parallel assembly technique that is suitable for high density interconnects with multi-stacked generic microfluidic systems, which has a pressure drop of 0.15 psi at a flow rate of 100 μl/min. We have also characterized these interconnects in terms of physical robustness of the interconnection scheme.