Chemistry: electrical and wave energy – Apparatus – Electrophoretic or electro-osmotic apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-14
2001-11-27
Phasge, Arun S. (Department: 1741)
Chemistry: electrical and wave energy
Apparatus
Electrophoretic or electro-osmotic apparatus
C204S601000, C204S604000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322683
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The field of microfluidics has been held up as the next great advance in biological science, akin to the advances made in the electronics industry with the development of the microprocessor. In particular, the small scale, high level of accuracy and reproducibility, and ready automatability have led to expectations that this field of research will revolutionize the way work is done in research laboratories.
As with the electronics industry, incremental advances will be achieved as the operations performed by these microfluidics systems are expanded and optimized in accordance with their increasing acceptance in the scientific area. However, also as with the electronics industry, the most significant developments in this technology will likely not involve incremental advances in specific operations, but will instead revolve around advances in the technology used to fabricate these systems. In particular, some of the most significant advances in the electronics industry have come from improved methods of producing microchips, which allow substantially increased efficiency and greater functionality in a smaller area or space.
Fabrication of microfluidic systems typically involves the fabrication of grooves in the surface of a first substrate layer, which grooves will correspond to the channel network in a finished microfluidic device. A second substrate layer is overlaid and bonded to the first to seal the grooves thereby forming the channels. Apertures disposed in one of the substrates communicate with the channels and function as access ports and or reagent reservoirs for the devices. With certain exceptions, this fabrication process has been largely unimproved for some time. Commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,465, to McReynolds, for example describes improved methods of mating and bonding the various substrate layers together in order to improve fabrication efficiency. Similarly, Published International Patent Application No. WO 98/00705 describes methods for fabricating microfluidic devices used in high throughput assay applications.
The present invention provides additional improvements in the fabrication of microfluidic devices, which improvements improve the efficiency both of the fabrication processes and operations to be performed by microfluidic devices.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a first aspect, the present invention provides a microfluidic device comprising a first substrate layer with at least a first planar surface. The first planar surface has at least a first microscale groove fabricated therein. The groove terminates at at least one end in a well also fabricated into the first surface. A second substrate layer comprising at least a first aperture disposed therethrough is also part of the device. The aperture is of smaller dimensions than the well. The second substrate layer is mated with the first surface of the first substrate layer to cover the groove and positioned such that the aperture is in complete communication with the well.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method of fabricating a microfluidic device. First and second substrate layers are provided. A microscale groove is fabricated into at least a first surface of at least one of the first and second layers. Concurrently, an alignment structure is fabricated into the at least one surface of the first or second layers at a desired position relative to the microscale groove. One or more of a third component of the microfluidic device and a tool is mated with the alignment structure to align the third component or the tool relative to the microscale groove.
A further aspect of the present invention is a method of fabricating a multilayered microfluidic device. A first substrate layer includes a first notch. A second notch is included in a second substrate layer. The first and second notches are positioned to be complementary when the first and second substrate layers are mated together. An alignment key is inserted into one of the first and second notches. The alignment key is configured to fit into the first and second notches when the first and second substrate layers are mated together and aligned in a first relative position. The first substrate layer is mated and bonded to the second substrate layer in the first relative position.
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McReynolds Richard J.
Parce J. Wallace
Wolk Jeffrey A.
Caliper Technologies Corp.
Murphy Matthew B.
Phasge Arun S,.
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