Micromachined sample divider for analyzing biochemical reaction based on single molecules

We proposed novel type of a sample divider, which can easily divide the sample solution into multiple small amount of it on a chip, for single molecule analysis. We used the composite of a PDMS and an expancel^R as a material, and fabricated the sample divider structure by applying the mold process. We investigated the PDMS and the expancel mixture fraction dependency, and effect of the heating time, on the channel closing performance. The flow channels were successfully closed when the volume ratio between the expancel and PDMS solution was 1:2 and the heating time was 15 minutes. From these results, we concluded that the proposed device is useful as the sample divider, if we optimally designed.