Design and Fabrication of CD-like Microfluidic Platforms for Diagnostics: Microfluidic Functions

In this paper, the design of a polymer based microfluidic compact disk (CD) platform is presented. Several microfluidic functions such as flow sequencing, cascade micro-mixing, and capillary metering can be integrated into the CD by balancing the centrifugal force and the capillary force. These functions are demonstrated experimentally. For flow sequencing, a two-point calibration design is used as an example to show how the release and flow of fluids can be precisely controlled by the rotation speed of the CD. For cascade micro-mixing, a typical application is reconstituting lyophilized protein. A simple metering technique based on bubble snap-off in the two-phase flow is also described.