Microfluidic devices and methods of using same

US7666361B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• FLUIDIGM CORPORATION · US

Inventors

• Lincoln McBride · Redwood City, US
• Marc A. Unger · San Mateo, US
• Michael Lucero · South San Francisco, US
• Hany Ramez Nassef · San Mateo, US
• Geoff Facer · San Francisco, US
• Yong Yi · San Francisco, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 5, 2004
• Grant date: Feb 23, 2010
• Expiry date: Jun 3, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C12Q1/686
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A variety of elastomeric-based microfluidic devices and methods for using and manufacturing such devices are provided. Certain of the devices have arrays of reaction sites to facilitate high throughput analyses. Some devices also include reaction sites located at the end of blind channels at which reagents have been previously deposited during manufacture. The reagents become suspended once sample is introduced into the reaction site. The devices can be utilized with a variety of heating devices and thus can be used in a variety of analyses requiring temperature control, including thermocycling applications such as nucleic acid amplification reactions, genotyping and gene expression analyses.