Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Microfluidic capillary systems automate, miniaturize and expedite the laboratory procedures without any needx000D
for active mechanical elements such as external pumps or valves. The technology has enabled Sensoreal, thex000D
supporting company, to develop self-contained, and self-powered microfluidic cartridges that perform rapidx000D
blood tests to measure multiple protein biomarkers using a few drops of blood. Currently, due to the laminarx000D
flow behaviour of the capillary microfluidic systems, the rehydrated reagents do not uniformly spread acrossx000D
the reservoirs of interest and as a result there is over 80% waste of the volume of the sample and the reagentx000D
used to perform the assay. Also the current issue makes the footprint of the microchips bulky (5 cm x 10 cm).x000D
The proposed research project plans to enhance the performance of the microfluidic capillary systems byx000D
introducing a capillary valve for the slow release of the dry reagents (SRDR). The valving system could then bex000D
integrated to the Sensoreal's capillary circuits for making cartridges consuming much less sample and reagentsx000D
volume and could further miniaturize the footprint of the cartridges made.x000D
In this context, our ultimate goal is to develop and optimize microfabrication processes including plasmax000D
synthesis, etching and functionalization processes to fabricate SRDR valves made in silicon. A particularx000D
attention will be paid to the optimization of the plasma etching processes (gaz ratio, temperature) to minimizex000D
the formation of any hydrophobic passivation layer on the surface of the Si channels, while keeping thex000D
microfluidic sidewall profiles as vertical as possible (anisotropic etching). Different techniques will be used tox000D
further oxidize the surface of the microchannel to enhance their hydrophilicity as required for the operation ofx000D
the SRDR. These techniques will include plasma-based functionalization and/or plasma-based thin filmx000D
deposition. If successful, the solution will give Sensoreal more opportunities to increase their technologyx000D
portfolio and have future market share especially in price sensitive countries.