• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.64-66
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• 2002

This paper reports the design, modeling, fabrication and measurement of passive microvalves applicable to glaucoma implants. The proposed microvalves consisted of microchannels and chambers. The microchannels had a fixed fluidic resistance and generated a pressure difference. The chamber was located in the middle of the microchannels and acted as a buffer preventing an abrupt pressure change from an external variation of the fluid flow. To find optimum design parameters, six kinds of the microvalves were fabricated and experimented.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.253-258
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• 2002

This paper reports the design, modeling, fabrication and measurement of passive microvalves, which are applicable to glaucoma implants. The proposed microvalves were designed using fluidic theory. The microvalves consisted of microchannels and chambers. The microchannels had a constant fluidic resistance generating a pressure difference. Six kinds of microvalves were designed using fluidic equations for laminar flow and fabricated to examine the influences of chamber size, channel length and the shape of channel cross section. The pressure difference between the designed microvalve and the fabricated microvalve was measured to be less than 4%.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.231-236
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• 2004

A normally open thermopneumaticc-actuated microvalve has been fabricated and their properties are investigated. The advantages of the proposed microvalve are of the low cost fabrication process and the transparent optical property using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and indium tin oxide (ITO) glass. The fabricated microvalves with in-channel configuration are easily integrated with other microfluidic devices on the same substrate. The fabrication process of thermopneumatic-actuated microvalvesusing PDMS is very simple and its performance is very suitable for a disposable lab-on-a-chip. The PDMS membrane deflection increases and the flow rates of the microchannel with microvalvels decrease as the applied power to the ITO heater increases. The powers at flow-off are dependent on the membrane thickness and the applied inlet pressure but are independent of the channel width of microvalves. The flow rate is well controlled by the switching function of ITO heater and the closing/opening times are around 20 sec and 25 sec, respectively.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.17-23
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• 2008

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.88-92
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• 2006

We present a microfluidic system with microvalves and a micropump that are easily integrated on the same substrate using the same fabrication process. The fabricated microfluidic system is suitable for use as a disposable device and its characteristics are optimized for use as a micro chemical analysis system (micro-TAS) and lab-on-a-chip. The system is realized by means of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-glass chip and an indium tin oxide (ITO) heater. We demonstrate the integration of the micropump and microvalves using a new thermopneumatic-actuated PDMS-based microfluidic system. A maximum pumping rate of about 730 nl/min is observed at. a duty ratio of 1 $\%$ and a frequency of 2 Hz with a fixed power of 500 mW. The measured power at flow cut-off is 500 mW for the microvalve whose channel width, depth and membrane thickness were 400 $\mu$m, 110 $\mu$m, and 320 $\mu$m, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.251-258
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• 2010

This paper presents the technology for the design, fabrication, and characterization of a microfluidic system interface (MSI); the purpose of this technology is to enable the integration of complex microfluidic systems. The MSI technology can be applied in a simple manner for realizing complex arrangements of microfluidic interconnects, integrated microvalves for fluid control, and optical windows for on-chip optical processes. A microfluidic system for the preparation of genetic samples was used as the test vehicle to prove the effectiveness of the MSI technology for packaging complex microfluidic systems with multiple functionalities. The miniaturized genetic sample preparation system comprised several functional compartments, including compartments for cell purification, cell separation, cell lysis, solid-phase DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction, and capillary electrophoresis. Additionally, the functional operation of the solid-phase extraction and PCR thermocycling compartments was demonstrated by using the MSI.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.342-346
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• 2004

A thermopneumatic-actuated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropump has been fabricated and their properties are characterized. The diffusers are used as a flow-rectifying element instead of passive check valves. The advantages of the proposed microvalve are of the low cost fabrication process and the transparent optical property using PDMS and indium tin oxide (ITO) glass. We presented the PDMS micropump that is easily integrated with the in-channel PDMS microvalves on the same substrate. The flowrate of the micropump increases linearly as the applied pulse voltage to the ITO heater increases. The fabricated ITO heater resistance is 6.54k$\Omega$. The peak of the flow rate is observed at the duty ratio of 10% for the applied pulse voltage of 55V at 6Hz and the maximum flow rate of 78nl/min is measured.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.473-478
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• 2004

This study focused on the charateristic of magnetic fluids, the viscosity deviation of magnetic fluids due to temperature changes, and fabrication of a 'purely' liquid type microvalve. The viscosity of magnetic fluids decreases sharply during increasing of temperature. The viscosity of magnetic fluids is rated 1,000 cP at the room temperature and 25 cP when the temperature reaches $100^{\circ}C$. Briefly, it is remarkable that the fluid flow can be controlled by the temperature and this characteristic can be adopted to the microfluidics as a microvalve. The fabrication of a liquid type microvalve is more easy than solid state microvalves and which can increase an efficiency of the controlability with respect to the thermo-pneumatic micropump which is studied broadly for many years. When the magnetic fluid used as a sealant for high level sealing, the pressure leakage is less than solid state microvalve. The experimental results show that the pressure drop in microchannel, filled with the magnetic fluid, is significant in the temperature range of $20^{\circ}C{\sim}50^{\circ}C$ and this result explains why the use of magnetic fluids is possible as a microvalve searcher uses this characteristics. Well known thermo-pnumatic.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.106-112
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• 2014

Here, we demonstrated the optimum design of pillar microstructure for efficient microdroplet merging. The microfluidic device mainly consisted of programmable microvalves and pillar microstructures. Based on the system, aqueous droplets were continuously generated at T-junction using actuating of integrated programmable microvalaves under the immiscible continuous fluid (mineral oil containing 0.5 wt% Span 80). The principle of merging process depended on the competitive correlation of hydraulic pressure of continuous phase and Laplace pressure of the droplet. We found that the design of the micropillars controls above two pressures. Finally, it was demonstrated that the microfluidic system could be able to efficient biochemical reaction. We expect that the microfluidic system is useful analytical or reaction tools in fundamental science, biotechnology, and chemical engineering.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.273-273
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• 2013

Recently, Point-of-care (POC) testing microdevices enable to do the patient monitoring, drug screening, pathogen detection in the outside of hospital. Immunochromatographic strip (ICS) is one of the diagnostic technologies which are widely applied to POC detection. Relatively low cost, simplicity to use, easy interpretations of the diagnostic results and high stability under any circumstances are representative advantages of POC diagnosis. It would provide colorimetric results more conveniently, if the genetic analysis microsystem incorporates the ICS as a detector part. In this work, we develop a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) microfluidic device integrated with a ROSGENE strip for colorimetric influenza H1N1 virus detection. The integrated RT-PCR- ROSGENE device is consist of four functional units which are a pneumatic micropump for sample loading, 2 ${\mu}L$ volume RT-PCR chamber for target gene amplification, a resistance temperature detector (RTD) electrode for temperature control, and a ROSGENE strip for target gene detection. The device was fabricated by combining four layers: First wafer is for RTD microfabrication, the second wafer is for PCR chamber at the bottom and micropump channel on the top, the third is the monolithic PDMS, and the fourth is the manifold for micropump operation. The RT-PCR was performed with subtype specific forward and reverse primers which were labeled with Texas-red, serving as a fluorescent hapten. A biotin-dUTP was used to insert biotin moieties in the PCR amplicons, during the RT-PCR. The RT-PCR amplicons were loaded in the sample application area, and they were conjugated with Au NP-labeled hapten-antibody. The test band embedded with streptavidins captures the biotin labeled amplicons and we can see violet colorimetric signals if the target gene was amplified with the control line. The off-chip RT-PCR amplicons of the influenza H1N1 virus were analyzed with a ROSGENE strip in comparison with an agarose gel electrophoresis. The intensities of test line was proportional to the template quantity and the detection sensitivity of the strip was better than that of the agarose gel. The test band of the ROSGENE strip could be observed with only 10 copies of a RNA template by the naked eyes. For the on-chip RT-PCR-ROSGENE experiments, a RT-PCR cocktail was injected into the chamber from the inlet reservoir to the waste outlet by the micro-pump actuation. After filling without bubbles inside the chamber, a RT-PCR thermal cycling was executed for 2 hours with all the microvalves closed to isolate the PCR chamber. After thermal cycling, the RT-PCR product was delivered to the attached ROSGENE strip through the outlet reservoir. After dropping 40 ${\mu}L$ of an eluant buffer at the end of the strip, the violet test line was detected as a H1N1 virus indicator, while the negative experiment only revealed a control line and while the positive experiment a control and a test line was appeared.