The present disclosure is drawn to temperature-cycling microfluidic devices. In one example, a temperature-cycling microfluidic device can include a driver chip having a top surface and a heat exchange substrate having a top surface coplanar with the top surface of the driver chip. A fluid chamber can be located on the top surface of the driver chip. A first and second microfluidic loop can have fluid driving ends and fluid outlet ends connected to the fluid chamber and can include portions thereof located on the top surface of the heat exchange substrate. A first and second fluid actuator can be on the driver chip. The first and second fluid actuators can be associated with the fluid driving ends of the first and second microfluidic loops, respectively, to circulate fluid through the first and second microfluidic loops.

During droplet operations in a droplet actuator, bubbles often form in the filler fluid in the droplet operations gap and interrupt droplet operations. The present invention provides methods and systems for performing droplet operations on a droplet in a droplet actuator comprising maintaining substantially consistent contact between the droplet and an electrical ground while conducting multiple droplet operations on the droplet in the droplet operations gap and/or reducing the accumulation of electrical charges in the droplet operations gap during multiple droplet operations. The methods and systems reduce or eliminate bubble formation in the filler fluid of the droplet operations gap, thereby permitting completion of multiple droplet operations without interruption by bubble formation in the filler fluid in the droplet operations gap.

The present invention provides a nucleic acid sequence amplification method and apparatuses thereof that are simple in the design and easy to miniaturize and integrate into complex apparatuses, with capability of using DNA polymerases that are not thermostable. In the present invention, a plurality of heat sources are combined to supply or remove heat from specific regions of the sample such that a specific spatial temperature distribution is maintained inside the sample by locating a relatively high temperature region lower in height than a relatively low temperature region.

This disclosure relates to a system for sorting sperm cells in a microfluidic chip. In particular, various features are incorporated into the system for aligning and orienting sperm in flow channels, as well as, for determining sperm orientation and measuring relative DNA content for analysis and/or sorting.

A consumable cartridge for a particle sorter system, the consumable cartridge comprising: an inlet for receiving a particle-containing fluid; a microfluidic chip comprising: an input channel in fluidic connection with the inlet; and a particle sorter junction in fluidic connection with the input channel and comprising an output positive channel and an output negative channel; and first and second outlets in fluidic connection with the output positive channel and the output negative channel respectively, for discharging the fluid from the consumable cartridge, such that at least one enclosed fluidic path is provided in the consumable cartridge between the inlet and the first and second outlets.

A method of collecting resin beads includes first to fourth steps. The first step is a step of preparing a sample on a thin film provided on an upper surface of a substrate. The second step is a step of irradiating the thin film with a laser beam and a laser beam with the laser beam and the laser beam being distant from each other. The third step is a step of producing a microbubble at a position irradiated with the laser beam and producing a microbubble at a position irradiated with the laser beam, by heating the sample by irradiation with the laser beams. The fourth step is a step of collecting a plurality of resin beads in a region between the microbubble and the microbubble by producing convection of the sample in a direction perpendicular to a direction of alignment of the microbubble and the microbubble.

A unitary, molded fluid reservoir body to which a fluid ejection head substrate is attached. The unitary, molded fluid reservoir body includes one or more discrete fluid chambers therein. Each of the one or more fluid chambers have an open top, side walls, and sloped bottom walls attached to the side walls, wherein each of the one or more fluid chambers terminates in a fluid supply via, and wherein the sloped bottom walls have an angle ranging from about 6 to about 12 degrees relative to a plane orthogonal to the sidewalls. An ejection head support face is disposed opposite the open top for attachment of a single fluid ejection device to the ejection head support face for ejecting fluid provided from the one or more chambers through the one or more fluid supply vias.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a bubble ejection method based on a new principle that is different from conventional bubble ejection methods and a bubble ejecting device.

To solve the problem, provided is a bubble ejection method using a bubble ejecting device, wherein the bubble ejecting device comprises a substrate formed of a dielectric, at least one bubble ejection hole formed so as to penetrate through a first face and a second face, which is a face opposite to the first face, of the substrate, a first opening formed at a position of the first face at which the bubble ejection hole penetrates, and a second opening formed at a position of the second face at which the bubble ejection hole penetrates, the bubble ejection method comprising: a substrate-conductive liquid contact step; a conductive liquid-electrode contact step; a voltage application step; and a bubble ejection step.

Provided is photoactivated selective release (or PHASR) of droplets from a microwell array enabled by a photoresponsive polymer layer integrated into the microfluidic device. This photoresponsive layer is placed in between a microwell array that traps a large number of droplets and a monolithic flow chamber that can be used for recovery. By using focused light, the photoresponsive layer can either be punctured or induced to create local heating to selectively release droplets. The type of photoacoustic dye and the physical properties of the photoresponsive layer can be engineered to induce either puncture of the membrane or pushing of droplets out of the microwells with low thermal impact on the droplets. This approach has broad application in the field of soft lithography-based microfluidic devices for various applications including photoresponsive valves as well as high throughput single cell sequencing.

Provided are a cell screening device and a cell screening method, for use in performing screening on different cells. The cell screening device is provided with: at least two flowing channels, used for allowing a solution containing cells to flow through; a communicating path, used for allowing the adjacent flowing channels to communicate with each other; a detection unit, used for detecting the types of cells in the solution flowing in the flowing channels; and a screening actuator, generating push force according to the detection result of the detection unit, so as to push cells in the solution flowing in the flowing channel to flow into the adjacent flowing channel through the communicating path.