In this application note, we introduced a commercially-available microfluidic system to perform passive size separation of a microparticle mixture. The system includes a spiral-shaped microfluidic device from microfluidic ChipShop and pressure-based flow controllers from Fluigent. Tuning Dean and lift forces induced by spiral microchannels allow to obtain distinct particle streams and subsequently sort particles according to their sizes.

Many microfluidic systems require rapid mixing of different fluids within microchannels. While diffusion can be an effective mode of mixing in microchannels with predominantly laminar flows, it often requires prolonged mixing times and/or ideally increase of interfacial area.
Introducing chaotic (but still laminar) flow patterns can aid mixing efficiency in microchannels. This strategy becomes even more important when mixing solutions with particularly low diffusion coefficients. The 3D serpentine mixer has been developed especially to address this challenge in microfluidics. It is the perfect tool to investigate fast and efficient passive micromixing of up to three liquids.

As flows in microchannels are usually laminar, mixing of liquids at microscale is a challenge but can be tackled using various approaches. One of the simplest methods for effective micromixing is to increase the interfacial areas between the fluids. Diffusion will cause the transfer of molecules through the interfacial area.
microfluidic ChipShop‘s diffusion mixer with its 217 mm long channel that enables a prolonged co-flow of fluids, makes use exactly of this principle.

In life science, tight control of the chemical environment is the basis for many experiments. A high spatial and timed resolution is key to successful experiments relying on gradients.
For this reason, we introduce the 2D Gradient Generator Fluidic 1166. It enables you to create gradients with up to six different fluids while at the same time allowing high control of flow and diffusion rates.

With the interaction chip family cell-cell interaction, of cells cultured in separate culture compartments, can be monitored. The channel interaction chip Fluidic 983, has been developed to study cells co-cultured in three adjacent channels, to each of which a microfluidic flow can be applied.

The isolation of individual cells can be particularly helpful in the analysis of cells and their communication with each other. For this reason, the cell trap chip Fl. 913 was developed. It enables you to collect individual cells and particles in wells where they can be monitored directly.

The straight channel chip with double sided adhesive tape represents a microfluidic chip system for self-assembly that enables customized reagent and assay integration for various kinds of applications. For these purposes several chip types are at hand, having one or more integrated fluidic channels that remain open for manipulation at customer’s side.

Droplet generation using microfluidics has attracted a lot of interest due to the ability to produce highly monodispersed droplets with high frequency. The generation of droplets is based on the use of two immiscible phases: continuous phase (medium in which droplets flow) and dispersed phase (the droplet).

The ChipGenie® edition TSO allows for the temperature control of microfluidic chips in microscope slide format. A fixed temperature as well temperature cycling can be done to enable e.g. a fast PCR on chip. The ChipGenie® edition TSO is equipped with a fluorescence-based read-out unit to carry out the optical detection on microfluidic ChipShop’s chamber chips following the spacing of a 384 well plate of 4.5 mm with fixed read-out positions.

The ChipGenie® edition Dx is a customized diagnostic platform and its respective cartridge. The user chooses the sample and detection method. The ChipGenie® edition Dx is a fully automized point-of-care device working in a bleed-to-read fashion.