Optimum control mode analysis and numerical backtracking of microfluidic cell-secreted analyte detection

Presently, due to the important applications in various clinical diagnoses and drug analyses, cell-secreted analyte detection, especially based on a microfluidic operation principle, has attracted tremendous interests. In this work, optimum control mode for this microfluidics biosensing process is identified based on a numerically obtained phase chart. Normally there are four control modes, namely flow control mode, surface reaction control mode, diffusion control mode along the flowing direction and diffusion control mode vertically to the flowing direction. The diffusion control mode along the flowing direction, with a slower diffusion process along the flowing direction, is the optimal detection scheme, where cell-secreted analyte production in source can be successfully backtracked from signals obtained in detection regions.