• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.865-884
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• 2016

We have previously demonstrated a microfluidic elastomer, which changes apparent color and could have potential applications in smart windows. The practical use of such functional microfluidic systems requires rapid and uniform fluid displacement throughout the channel network with minimal amount of liquid supply. The goal of this simulation study is to design various microfluidic networks for similar applications including, but not limited to, the color-switching windows and compare the liquid displacement speed and efficiency of the designs. We numerically simulate and analyze the liquid displacement in the microfluidic networks with serpentine, parallel and lattice channel configurations, as well as their modified versions with wide or tapered distributor and collector channels. The data are analyzed on the basis of numerical criteria defined to evaluate the performance of the corresponding functional systems. We found that the lattice channel network geometry with the tapered distributors and collectors provides most rapid and uniform fluid displacement with minimum liquid waste. The simulation results could give an important guideline for efficient liquid supply/displacement in emerging functional systems with embedded microfluidic networks.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.73-78
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• 2002

Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems have enabled a new generation ofassay technologies in chemical and biomedical sciences. Caliper's microfluidic LOC systems contain a network of microscopic channels through which fluids and chemical are moved in order to perform experiments. The main advantages of these continuous-flow devices are integration and automation of multiple steps in complex analytical procedures to improve the reproducibility of the results, and eliminated the manual labor, time and pipetting errors involved in analyses. The present talk is devoted to give a brief introduction of microfluidic basics and to present in applying continuous-flow microchips to drug screening with model enzyme assays.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.86-92
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• 2009

Nowadays, the development of microfluidic chip [i.e. biochip, micro-total analysis system ($\mu$-TAS) and LOC (lab-on-a-chip)] becomes more active, and the microchannels to deliver fluid by pressure or electroosmotic forces tend to be more complex like electronic circuits or networks. For a simple network of channels, we may calculate the pressure and the flow rate easily by using suitable formula. However, for complex network it is not handy to obtain such information with that simple way. For this reason, Graphic User Interface (GUI) program which can rapidly give required information should be necessary for microchip designers. In this paper, we present a GUI program developed in our laboratory and the simple theoretical formula used in the program. We applied our program to simple case and could get results compared well with other numerical results. Further, we applied our program to several complex cases and obtained reasonable results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2021

River and stream are the important water supply source in our lives. Eutrophication causes excessive green algae growth including microcystis, which makes harmful to ecosystem and human health. Therefore, the water purification process to remove green algae is essential. In Korea, green algae alarm system exists depending on the concentration of green algae cells in river or stream. To maintain the growth amount under control, green algae monitoring system is being used. However, the unmanned, small and automatic monitoring system would be preferable. In this study, we developed the 3D printed device to measure the concentration of green algae cell using microfluidic droplet generator and deep learning. Deep learning network was trained by using transfer learning through pre-trained deep learning network. This newly developed microfluidic cell counter has sufficient accuracy to be possibly applicable to green algae alarm system.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.717-720
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• 2003

A chromogenic biosensor employing microfluidics on a chip has been developed for the determination of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (HDL-C) in human serum. We have investigated a plain and effective method to immobilize enzymes within the microchip without chemically modifying micro-channel or technically micro-fabricating column reactor and fluid channel network. In assessing risk factors of coronary heart disease, a micro-chip system would minimize requirements of instrument and reagent handling.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.1175-1180
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• 2013

A microfabricated electrochemical cell comprising PDMS-based microchannel and in-channel gold microelectrodes was fabricated as a sensitive and a miniature alternative to the conventional electroanalytical systems. A reproducible fabrication procedure enabled patterning of multiple microelectrodes integrated within a PDMS-based fluidic network. The active area of each electrode was $200{\mu}m{\times}200{\mu}m$ with a gap of $200{\mu}m$ between the electrodes which resulted in a higher signal to noise ratio. Also, the PDMS layer served the purpose of shielding the electrical interferences to the measurements. Analytes such as potassium ferrocyanide; amino acid: cysteine and nucleoside: guanosine were characterized using the fabricated cell. The microchip was comparable to bulk electrochemical systems and its applicability was also demonstrated with flow injection based rapid amperometric detection of DNA samples. The device so developed shall find use as a disposable electrochemical cell for rapid and sensitive analysis of electroactive species in various industrial and research applications.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.76-83
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• 2022

Neurons-on-a-Chip technology has been developed to provide diverse in vitro neuro-tools to study neuritogenesis, synaptogensis, axon guidance, and network dynamics. The two core enabling technologies are soft-lithography and microelectrode array technology. Soft lithography technology made it possible to fabricate microstamps and microfluidic channel devices with a simple replica molding method in a biological laboratory and innovatively reduced the turn-around time from assay design to chip fabrication, facilitating various experimental designs. To control nerve cell behaviors at the single cell level via chemical cues, surface biofunctionalization methods and micropatterning techniques were developed. Microelectrode chip technology, which provides a functional readout by measuring the electrophysiological signals from individual neurons, has become a popular platform to investigate neural information processing in networks. Due to these key advances, it is possible to study the relationship between the network structure and functions, and they have opened a new era of neurobiology and will become standard tools in the near future.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.92-94
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• 2005

We present a novel method for three-dimensional optical memory and microchannel embedded in fused silica glass. Three-dimensional dot patterning with a femtosecond laser pulse and observation with optical microscope are performed. Dot patterns are created by use of a 0.42 N.A. objective to focus 100 fs laser pulses inside the material. We demonstrate data storage with $2{\mu}m$ dot pitch and $7{\mu}m$layer spacing $(36 Gbit/cm^3)$. A three-dimensional microchannel acting as microfluidic and microoptical components is directly fabricated inside a silica glass. The optical micrographs of the microchannel are obtained by a digital camera of a microscope.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.274.2-274.2
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• 2013

We described a simple and efficient fabrication method for generating microfluidic channels with a circular-cross sectional geometry by exploiting the reflow phenomenon of a thick positive photoresist. Initial rectangular shaped positive photoresist micropatterns on a silicon wafer, which were fabricated by a conventional photolithography process, were converted into a half-circular shape by tuning the temperature to around $105^{\circ}C$. Through optimization of the reflow conditions, we could obtain a perfect circular micropattern of the positive photoresist, and control the diameter in a range from 100 to 400 ${\mu}m$. The resultant convex half-circular photoresist was used as a template for fabricating a concave polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) through a replica molding process, and a circular PDMS microchannel was produced by bonding two half-circular PDMS layers. A variety of channel dimensions and patterns can be easily prepared, including straight, S-curve, X-, Y-, and T-shapes to mimic an in vivo vascular network. To inform an endothelial cell layer, we cultured primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) inside circular PDMS microchannels, and demonstrated successful cell adhesion, proliferation, and alignment along the channel.