In accordance with an embodiment, a microfluidic chip including a first cells enrichment system and a second cells enrichment system is provided. Channel layouts of the first and the second cells enrichment systems are symmetric with respect to a reflection plane vertical to the microfluidic chip. Each of the first the second cells enrichment systems includes a first fluid channel, a second fluid channel, a sample channel, an inlet channel, and a filtration chamber. The sample channel of the first cells enrichment system has a first inner wall and a first outer wall. The sample channel of the second cells enrichment system has a second inner wall and a second outer wall. The first outer wall and the second outer wall are both far from the reflection plane. A distance between the first outer wall and the second outer wall is in the range from about 10 m to about 1 cm.

An optical system for acquiring fast spectra from spatially channel arrays includes a light source for producing a light beam that passes through the microfluidic chip or the channel to be monitored, one or more lenses or optical fibers for capturing the light from the light source after interaction with the particles or chemicals in the microfluidic channels, and one or more detectors. The detectors, which may include light amplifying elements, detect each light signal and transducer the light signal into an electronic signal. The electronic signals, each representing the intensity of an optical signal, pass from each detector to an electronic data acquisition system for analysis. The light amplifying element or elements may comprise an array of phototubes, a multianode phototube, or a multichannel plate based image intensifier coupled to an array of photodiode detectors.

Method, apparatus, and computer program product for a microfluidic channel having a cover opposite its bottom, the cover allowing visual inspection inside the channel, and having electrodes with patterned planar conducting materials, integrated onto its bottom. Using the planar conducting materials, once a fluid sample with suspended microparticles is applied into the channel, highly localized modulated electric field distributions are generated inside the channel and the fluid sample. This generated field causes inducing of dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces such that the DEP forces gradually increase along the length of the channel occupied by the electrodes. These DEP forces counteract the hydrodynamic drag of the flow acting on the particles suspended in the fluid. Because of the induced forces, micro/nano-particles in the fluid sample are deflected at locations in the microchannel that are a function of the particles velocity and this effect is captured by an image sensing device.

Disclosed herein are methods, devices, and systems for efficient loading and retrieval of particles. In some embodiments, a fluidic channel of a flowcell comprises a ceiling, a first sidewall, and a bottom, wherein the contact angle of the ceiling is at least 10 degrees smaller than the contact angle of the first sidewall, and wherein the bottom of the fluidic channel comprises a substrate that comprises a plurality of microwells.

The invention relates to methods and compositions useful for routing and tracking multiple mobile units within a microfluidic device. Mobile units may be routed through a plurality of chemical environments, and the mobile units may be tracked to determine the path and/or environments that the mobile units have routed through. Mobile units may be routed in accordance with a predetermined algorithm. Mobile units may be routed through microfluidic devices in ordered flow. Absolute or relative position of a unit inside a microfluidic device, e.g. within an ordered set of units, may be used to identify the routing path history of the unit.

A method and apparatus for sorting particles moving through a closed channel system of capillary size comprises actuators and chambers for selectively generating a pressure pulse to separate a particle having a predetermined characteristic from a stream of particles. The particle sorting system may further include a buffer for absorbing the pressure pulse. The particle sorting system may include a plurality of closely coupled sorting modules which are combined to further increase the sorting rate. The particle sorting system may comprise a multi-stage sorting device for serially sorting streams of particles, in order to decrease the error rate.

Disclosed is a device, suitable for use as an acoustic resonator, including a base adapted to be coupled to at least one acoustic wave generator, a spacer including an aperture and a reflector, wherein the base includes a protruding part having a thickness t; the aperture of the spacer is complementary to the protruding part of the base; the device further includes a housing having an aperture complementary to the protruding part of the base and wherein the inner edge of the aperture has the same thickness t than the protruding part; and the housing is positioned between the spacer and the reflector, such that the thickness of the inner edge of the spacer defined the thickness of a cavity between the protruding part and the reflector. Also disclosed is a method of trapping particles in a fluid.

The combined value of integrating optical forces and electrokinetics allows for the pooled separation vectors of each to be applied, providing for separation based on combinations of features such as size, shape, refractive index, charge, charge distribution, charge mobility, permittivity, and deformability. The interplay of these separation vectors allow for the selective manipulation of analytes with a finer degree of variation. Embodiments include methods of method of separating particles in a microfluidic channel using a device comprising a microfluidic channel, a source of laser light focused by an optic into the microfluidic channel, and a source of electrical field operationally connected to the microfluidic channel via electrodes so that the laser light and the electrical field to act jointly on the particles in the microfluidic channel. Other devices and methods are disclosed.

The present invention encompasses a micro-fluidic system having a closed-loop configuration in which inertial micro-fluidic separation of particles and/or cells is continuously repeated by feeding part of the output back to the input so that the purity and/or concentration of the particles and/or cell is maximized. The invention also includes methods of using the micro-fluidic system.

A single junction sorter for a microfluidic particle sorter, the single-junction sorter comprising: an input channel, configured to receive a fluid containing particles; an output sort channel and an output waste channel, each connected to the input channel for receiving the fluid therefrom; a bubble generator, operable to selectively displace the fluid around a particle to be sorted and thereby to create a transient flow of the fluid in the input channel; and a vortex element, configured to cause a vortex in the transient flow in order to direct the particle to be sorted into the output sort channel.