Geometrical effect characterization of femtosecond-laser manufactured glass microfluidic chips based on optical manipulation of submicroparticles

Domna G. Kotsifaki*, Mark Donald Mackenzie, Georgia Polydefki, Ajoy Kumar Kar, Mersini Makropoulou, Alexandros A. Serafetinides

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
94 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Microfluidic devices provide a platform with wide ranging applications from environmental monitoring to disease diagnosis. They offer substantive advantages but are often not optimized or designed to be used by nonexpert researchers. Microchannels of a microanalysis platform and their geometrical characterization are of eminent importance when designing such devices. We present a method that is used to optimize each microchannel within a device using high-throughput particle manipulation. For this purpose, glass-based microfluidic devices, with three-dimensional channel networks of several geometrical sizes, were fabricated by employing laser fabrication techniques. The effect of channel geometry was investigated by employing an optical tweezer. The optical trapping force depends on the flow velocity that is associated with the dimensions of the microchannel. We observe a linear dependence of the trapping efficiency and of the fluid flow velocity, with the channel dimensions. We determined that the highest trapping efficiency was achieved for microchannels with aspect ratio equal to one. Numerical simulation validated the impact of the device design dimensions on the trapping efficiency. This investigation indicates that the geometrical characteristics, the flow velocity, and trapping efficiency are crucial and should be considered when fabricating microfluidic devices for cell studies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number124111
JournalOptical Engineering
Volume56
Issue number12
Early online date27 Dec 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2017

Keywords

  • femtosecond laser
  • geometrical characteristics
  • glasses
  • microfluidics
  • optical tweezers
  • velocity measurements

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • General Engineering

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