Pressure Driven Microflow Through a Double-T Metering Section

Many assay devices require metering a calibrated amount of sample foranalysis. As mobile/handheld assay devices become closer to realization, power usage becomes more critical for all system components. Current designs utilize electrokinetically driven flow and well-defined channel geometry to meter a sample for assay. These types of geometries are typically called double-T injectors or offset-T injectors. The high voltages needed for this electrokinetic flow method make the realization of a very low power device prohibitive. Pressure driven flow, rather than electrokinetic flow, is proposed to overcome the power constraints of a mobile assay device. The pressure driven flow device employs a double-T geometry for low power sample metering. Research of this method is described in this paper.