INTEGRATED SYSTEM FOR THE VISUAL CONTROL, QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE FLOW MEASUREMENT IN MICROFLUIDICS

摘要

The invention refers to a control and measurement system for various features of fluidic motion in microfluidic chips, which allows the calculation of the flow speed, the volume, texture and density of fluids based on a video capture device (either a digital camera or an analogue camera with the appropriate digitization unit, or another optical sensor). It is possible to use an optical sensor (e. g. a camera with lens) to continuously control all points on a microfluidic chip with reduced cost and complexity. With the suggested system it is possible not only to detect the position of the fluids (detection of the frontal wavefront) but also to determine further characteristics like speed of motion, volume as well as the detection of potential problems, like bubble formation. In many cases there is simultaneous motion of fluids in multiple channels on a microfluidic chip, which all need to be detected and analysed by the camera (or camera array in some cases).