A Vacuum-Driven Microfluidic Array for Multi-Step Sample Digitalization
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Hu, Jiumei; Chen, Liben; Zhang, Pengfei; Hsieh, Kuangwen; Li, Hui; Wang, Tza-Huei
- Source
- 2021 21st International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (Transducers) SSolid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (Transducers), 2021 21st International Conference on. :1004-1007 Jun, 2021
- Subject
- Bioengineering
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Photonics and Electrooptics
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Robotics and Control Systems
Resistance
Micromechanical devices
Transducers
Oils
Loading
Seals
Sensors
Microfluidic
Multi-step loading
Single-cell
Digital PCR
- Language
- ISSN
- 2167-0021
We present herein a facile vacuum-driven microfluidic device that is capable of multi-step sample digitalization based on the gas permeability of PDMS. The device features 1) a suction layer that is connected to an external vacuum to generate a continuous negative pressure within the device, and 2) an outlet-free microarray layer with treelike multi-level bifurcated microchannels connecting to 4096 dead-end microwells to realize multiple loading steps until all the microwells being filled. To efficiently prevent sample evaporation at high temperatures, we use a glass slide that is pre-poured with thermosetting oil to seal the gas-permeable PDMS. Moreover, we demonstrated successful detection of single-cell methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with three loading steps targeting the resistance marker gene MecA via digital PCR amplification on the device.