Towards a New Generation of Microfluidic Devices without Microfluidic Channels

Abstract

Microfluidics opened up a path for various applications that benefited from manipulation of fluids on micro scale. However, when confined to microchannels, fluids exhibit properties that result in various limitations of this technology, such as e.g. highly resistive flow in case of high viscosity liquids. Fabrication tolerances and clogging cause further difficulties in the design and use of real-life microfluidic devices. We propose a new method for manipulation of liquids on micro scale, were fluids are observed and analyzed in free space, rather than in microchannels, based on the electrospray and Taylor cone theory.