A polymer-based microfluidic controller

Two design concepts are presented for realization of a microfluidic controller consisting of a microvalve and a flow sensor. One concept relies on a modular system design, which allows a maximum degree of flexibility in combining different microfluidic components on a microfluidic chip. In the second concept, the microfluidic components are fully integrated in order to minimize system size and dead volumes. The design concepts are implemented using a polymer-based fabrication technology. By using a proportional-integral control scheme, the microfluidic controller with integrated design shows the better performance. In this case, a minimum control tolerance of 1% and a time constant of 70 ms are achieved.