Lateral detection of fluid properties

• Main Authors: DE MALSCHE, Wim, JACOBS, Paul
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 16.05.2024
• Subjects: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; PHYSICS; TESTING

Abstract Lateral detection of fluid properties 5 A microfluidic device (100) for detecting a characteristic of a fluid. The device (100) comprises a microfluidic channel (110) having at least an inlet (120) for receiving a fluid plug or an outlet for removing a fluid plug and a pillar based flow distributor (130) for reorienting the fluid plug in such a way that the long axis of the fluid plug essentially is oriented perpendicular to the walls of the microfluidic channel, as opposed to its original 10 orientation, in which the longeraxis is oriented in the longitudinal direction of the narrower inlet channel, the width W of the microfluidic channel being substantially larger than the width w of the inlet or outlet channel. The microfluidic device (100) is adapted fordetecting a physical or chemical property of the fluid, the microfluidic device (100) being configured for detecting the property in a detection area positioned across the microfluidic channel in 15 a width direction of the microfluidic channel. The microfluidic device (100) is being configured for having a detection area (210) positioned within a distance D of the pillar based flow distributor (130) being smaller than the width W of the microfluidic channel.