Active microfluidic mixer chip

We report the design and fabrication of a chaotic mixer based on the electrorheological (ER) fluid-controlled valves. The flow in the main channel is perturbed by liquid flow in orthogonal side channels, driven by hydrodynamic pulsating pumps. Each pulsating pump consists of a chamber with diaphragm plus two out-of-phase ER valves operating in a push-pull mode. All the valves, pumps, and mixing channels are integrated in one polydimethylsioxane chip. Mixing characteristics in the main channel are controlled by the strength and frequency of external electric fields applied on the ER fluid.