Universal adhesive-free Fit-to-Flow microfluidic connections

World-to-chip (macro-to-micro) interface continues to be one of the most complicated, ineffective, and unreliable components in the development of emerging μTAS involving integrated microfluidic operations. In this paper, we present standardized adhesive-free microfluidic interfaces, referred to as Fit-to-Flow (F2F) connections, using two physical mechanisms to achieve hermetic seal performance (up to 336 kPa), high-density 2D tube-packaging (1 tube/mm²), self-aligned plug-in (10.7 μm), and applicability to broad fluidic chip platforms. A 3D microfluidic mixer and a 6-level chemical gradient generator have been devised to illustrate the applicability of the universal fluidic connections to classic microfluidic operations.