Agitating – Stationary mixing chamber
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-20
2001-12-18
Soohoo, Tony G. (Department: 1723)
Agitating
Stationary mixing chamber
C366S165100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06331073
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to an order-changing microfluid mixer, especially to a mixer that can change the spatial orders of a microfluid in a microchannel.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
A microfluid processing device comprises in general a microchannel, pumps, heaters, coolers and mixers such that a microfluid may be transported and processed inside and along the microchannel. Sometimes when the microfluid is in one section of the microchannel, at one terminal of the section is a heater and at the other terminal of the section is a cooler. Sometimes at one terminal of the section a reactant is added, while at the other terminal a different reactant is added. When a microfluid containing reactants is being processed in the microchannel uniform distributions of temperature and concentration are required. However, because of the large length to cross-sectional area ratio of microchannel it always happens that, when one terminal of a microfluid is being heated, the other terminal of the microfluid is being cooled at the same time. If this problem is not solved, a permanent spatial temperature gradient will exist in the microchannel, such that a uniform temperature distribution may not be obtained. In a microchannel, it also happens that, when a reactant is added into a section of the microfluid, the reactant can not travel to other sections effectively. Such a phenomenon makes it difficult to form a uniform distribution of reactants in the microfluid
In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to include a means in the microchannel, such that every part of the microfluid inside the microchannel may access the heaters or coolers directly and that reactants may be added into every part of the microfluid directly. As a result, an order-changing mechanism in the microchannel to change the spatial order of sections of a microfluid is required.
OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION
The objective of this invention is to provide an order-changing mixer for microfluid to solve the problem of non-uniform distribution of temperature or reactants in a microfluid in a microchannel.
Another objective of this invention is to provide an order-changing microfluidic mixer that is simple to fabricate in structure, and is easy to prepare and contains no active elements.
Another objective of this invention is to provide a novel order-changing mixer that is able to change the sectional order of a microfluid when the microfluid is transported through the mixer.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
According to the present invention, an order-changing microfluid mixer is disclosed. The order-changing microfluid mixer comprises an extended microfluidic channel and a chamber structure that provides order-changing functions to microfluid when the microfluid passes through the chamber structure. The order-changing chamber has two openings connected to said microfluidic channel. In the application, a microfluid is driven from a first terminal of the microfluidic channel to a second terminal, the microfluid enters into the order-changing chamber and flows along the first side of the order-changing chamber. At the same time, sections of the microfluid positioned adjacent to the second side of the order-changing chamber stay at said second side of the order-changing chamber. When a microfluid is driven from the second terminal of the microfluidic channel to the first terminal the microfluid flows along the second side of the order-changing chamber. At this time, sections of the microfluid positioned adjacent to the second side of the order-changing chamber are driven to the first terminal of the microfluidic channel. The sections of the microfluid originally positioned at the second terminal of the microfluidic channel enters into the second side of the order-changing chamber, while sections of the microfluid positioned adjacent to the first side of the order-changing chamber stays unmoved. The microfluid is then driven from the first terminal of the microfluidic channel to the second terminal again, whereby sections of the microfluid originally positioned adjacent to the first side of the ordering chamber enters into the second terminal of the microfluidic channel. The microfluid is driven from the second terminal to the first terminal again, whereby sections of the microfluid originally positioned adjacent to the second side of the order-changing chamber enters the first terminal of the microfluidic channel. By repeating the above-said processes, sectional orders of the microfluid may be changed as desired.
The above and other objectives and advantages of this invention may be clearly understood from the detailed description by referring to the following drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4534659 (1985-08-01), Dourdeville et al.
patent: 5573334 (1996-11-01), Anderson
patent: 6065864 (2000-05-01), Evans et al.
patent: 6170981 (2001-01-01), Regnier et al.
Bacon & Thomas
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Soohoo Tony G.
LandOfFree
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