Microfluidic mixing by fluidic discretization

A new concept of microfluidic mixing based on fluid " discretization" is proposed in this paper. Polymer based micropumps, micromixer and microchannels have been designed and integrated in a single PMMA chip microfluidic system. The optically transparent and biocompatible material used to fabricate the microfluidic system will enable many biomedical and chemical analysis applications. The idea of "discretized" microfluidic mixing is to manipulate fluids as "discretize" volumes by pumping fluids by two micropumps into a microchamber alternatively in order to increasing the interfacial surface area. Hence, the diffusion between fluids can be completed in a shorter time and fluids can be mixed instantly without external energy in the chamber. The design, implementation and experimental results are presented in this paper. © 2005 IEEE.