Digital Micro-Fluidics
Electric potential can be applied across liquid-solid interface to turn hydrophobic surface into hydrophilic. When sandwiched between top and bottom electrode plates, droplets can be programmed to transport by a serial activation of electrodes, eliminating the need for pumps and valves.
Digital Micro-Fluidics can operate droplets with multiples of unit volume, which is defined by electrode size and channel gap. Our system employs a wide range of unit droplet volume: from tens of nanoliter to hundreds of microliter.
Proprietary hydrophobic coating technology enhances signal response and durability, enabling operating various types of liquid: from salted water, acid, base, to human blood plasma and serum.
Droplets generated from splitting mother droplets or directly from reservoirs can have a highly consistent volume.
Each single task can be achieved by different combinations of serial activation of electrodes (scripts). With the flexibility to choose from our script library, your script can be customized to focus on speed, volume consistency, or saving required space.
Reagent pre-packaging & sample auto-loading
Lyophilized, air dried, or liquid reagents can be pre-packaged inside hermetically sealed cartridge. Temperature-sensitive phase-changing material can be utilized as valve to ensure compartmentalization during storage. Low vacuum packaging enables fast and automatic sample loading. All these together facilitate Point-of-Care application.
Pico-liter droplet array deposition (available in 2022)
Arrays of pico-liter droplets can be deposited by transporting a mother droplet through pico-well electrodes fabricated with our proprietary hydrophobic patterning technology. Each of those tiny droplets are individually isolated by surrounding oil and hence each of them can perform independent chemical reactions.