HOW DOES IT WORK?
Microfluidic Chip
Microfluidic chips are typically fabricated in plastic, glass or PDMS (PolyDimethylSiloxane) and contain a wide variety of simple to complex geometries: single microchannels or multiple intersecting microchannels with varying dimensions. Such geometries facilitate mixing, pumping and sorting of samples, cell growth, cell and particle encapsulation etc. There are many more designs and applications which can be developed but your choice of microfluidic chip (material type, channel geometries, channel dimensions etc.) is crucial to your experimental set-up. When making your own chip or purchasing a chip, it is important to consider the material type as this will offer different capabilities.
Many researchers have the capability to fabricate chips in their own labs and usually PDMS is the material of choice because it is quick, easy to fabricate and low-cost. However, PDMS has a number of well-known disadvantages and as a result, plastic chips are gaining in popularity, particularly as material properties have improved in recent years offering greater optical quality and multi-layer bonding. Glass chips are more difficult to fabricate and thus, they are often only produced by specialist companies. Check out our table below for a summary of some of the key properties for different material types.