One application of the membrane chips is the generation of plasma/serum from whole blood. While this application is rather prominent, these chips can be used for various filtering applications by exchanging the membrane material and using various pore sizes. A range of different membranes is available at microfluidic ChipShop and can be integrated on request.

Microscopy slide chips with 2 and 4 membranes are at hand to ensure the plasma/serum generation out of full blood. For the chips with 10 mm diameter membranes, each membrane can generate roughly 12 – 15 μl plasma/serum out of 25 μl full blood. Each unit of these chips consists of a Luer interface (1) for blood loading, a support channel with a cross-section of 300 μm × 100 μm (2) for the transfer of the blood on top of a separation membrane (3) that is fused into a chip-based chamber of 10 mm diameter, a plasma/serum collection channel (4) below the membrane, and a ventilation channel of 100 μm × 100 μm (5) also below the membrane. The vacuum is applied via the collection channel and a second interface (6) to the outer world. A third interface (7), which is closed during the sample loading, helps to smoothly release the slight vacuum if the membrane pores are blocked by the solid components of the blood such as erythrocytes, monocytes, platelets, or leucocytes. The chips are offered without (membrane chip 168) and with an additional venting line (membrane chip 200) to allow for an easier filling of the membrane chamber itself. Upon request, the platform can be equipped with customer-specific membranes. Please contact us for feasibility and pricing.

The transwell chips have been designed to allow direct access on membrane areas and provide a permanent entry port for liquid supply, storage and exchange. In combination with microfluidic ChipShop’s specially designed Interaction Tanks like Fluidic 234 and 235 for liquid supply and storage this chip family allows for a wide variety of filtering and assay tasks in particular for cell-based assays. Interaction Tank Fluidic 235 is equipped with a cap that included Mini Luer fluidic interfaces to be easily connected to pumps for permanent operation.

The cross-flow membrane chips have two in- and outlet ports above and below the membrane. This allows for experiments such as small molecule transfer measurements, on-chip dialysis or cell culture experiments. Upon request, the platform can be equipped with customer-specific membranes. Please contact us for feasibility and pricing.