A microfabricated flow chamber for optical measurements in fluids

Author

Sobek, Daniel ; Young, Albert M. ; Gray, Martha L. ; Senturia, Stephen D.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

1993

fDate

7-10 Feb 1993

Firstpage

219

Lastpage

224

Abstract

The fabrication and initial testing of silicon micromachined flow chambers for applications in flow cytometry are reported. The flow chambers consist of a hexagonal flow duct with inlet and outlet ports, thin-film windows on the top and bottom of the duct, and integrated optical waveguides positioned to intercept the center of the duct within the visible area defined by the windows. An opening for a hypodermic needle allows injection of a suspension of microscopic particles into a liquid stream flowing through the duct. Each component of the device was tested individually, and good agreement between the experimental data and theoretical models was observed. Laminar flow was observed in several prototypes up to mean flow speeds of 3 m/s. No leaks were detected for inlet pressures as high as 30 psi

Keywords

biological techniques and instruments; biomedical equipment; biomedical measurement; flowmeters; haemodynamics; integrated optics; micromechanical devices; optical windows; Si; flow cytometry; hexagonal flow duct; integrated optical waveguides; laminar flow; microfabricated flow chamber; micromachined flow chambers; microscopic biological particles; optical measurements; thin-film windows; Ducts; Fluid flow measurement; Image motion analysis; Integrated optics; Needles; Optical device fabrication; Optical films; Optical waveguides; Silicon; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 1993, MEMS '93, Proceedings An Investigation of Micro Structures, Sensors, Actuators, Machines and Systems. IEEE.

Conference_Location

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0957-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.1993.296919

Filename

296919