Adaptive Blood Cell Separation using Cooperation of Serially Connected Membrane Filters

This paper proposes a cooperative operation of serially connected membrane filters toward adaptive blood cell separation system in order to overcome a restriction of a single membrane filter. A cooperation of serially connected membrane filters allows that downstream filters extract blood plasma from residual blood at upstream filters. Consequently, it becomes possible to adapt filtering characteristics to changing properties of blood. We focus on trans-membrane pressure (TMP) in order to prevent hemolysis. Our strategy can be realized as a miniaturized PDMS fluidic chip. Our laboratory experiment using a prototype shows that plasma extraction efficiency is improved from 34% to 75%. Toward an integrated system, this paper successfully demonstrates multiple filters integrated into a PDMS fluidic chip.