Development of a Disposable Bio-Microfluidic Package With Reagents Self-Contained Reservoirs and Micro-Valves for a DNA Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) Application

A disposable self-contained microfluidic package has been developed and tested for on-chip DNA extraction from human blood for practical lab-on-a-chip platform. The microfluidic package has been customized to allow easy interface between the microscale sample injection to the Si-based microscale sample preparation chip. For precise sample dispensing and to minimize dead volume and/or sample lost conical-shaped reservoirs have been employed. Reservoirs filled with reagents are sealed by a highly elastic thin rubber membrane. Automated actuation system has been designed and implemented for programmable sample/reagent dispensing using thin rubber membrane-plunger mechanism. The packaged DNA chip has been tested using blood sample and the testing protocol has been optimized to meet the requirements for DNA extraction.