Design Optimization of Centrifugal Microfluidic “Lab-on-a-Disc” Systems towards Fluidic Larger-Scale Integration

Abstract

Enhancing the degree of functional multiplexing while assuring operational reliability and manufacturability at competitive costs are crucial ingredients for enabling comprehensive sample-to-answer automation, e.g., for use in common, decentralized “Point-of-Care” or “Point-of-Use” scenarios. This paper demonstrates a model-based “digital twin” approach, which efficiently supports the algorithmic design optimization of exemplary centrifugo-pneumatic (CP) dissolvable-film (DF) siphon valves toward larger-scale integration (LSI) of well-established “Lab-on-a-Disc” (LoaD) systems. Obviously, the spatial footprint of the valves and their upstream laboratory unit operations (LUOs) have to fit, at a given radial position prescribed by its occurrence in the assay protocol, into the locally accessible disc space. At the same time, the retention rate of a rotationally actuated CP-DF siphon valve and, most challengingly, its band width related to unavoidable tolerances of experimental input parameters need to slot into a defined interval of the practically allowed frequency envelope. To accomplish particular design goals, a set of parametrized metrics is defined, which are to be met within their practical boundaries while (numerically) minimizing the band width in the frequency domain. While each LSI scenario needs to be addressed individually on the basis of the digital twin, a suite of qualitative design rules and instructive showcases structures are presented.

Digital Twin: An Oracle for Efficient Crowdsourcing of Research & Technology Development through Blockchain

“…Previous work has outlined how to leverage the benefits of blockchain-based community approaches for science & RTD [58][59][60][61][62][63] in a more general context. This paper exemplifies the digital twin concept for the case of centrifugal microfluidic flow control, which has been experimentally demonstrated and elaborated in much more technical detail elsewhere [64][65][66][67][68][69].…”

“…In preceding publications, the model for CP-DF siphon valving has already been applied for design optimization of centrifugal microfluidic LoaD systems towards fluidic larger-scale integration [64], to enhance system-level reliability of multiplexed centrifugo-pneumatic flow control [65], derived anticounterfeit technologies [66], and on-board reagent storage and release by solvent-selective, rotationally opened membranes [67].…”

Anti-Counterfeit Technologies for Microfluidic “Lab-on-a-Disc” Systems

“…Hence, subprime quality entails poor precision, such as Δ = Δ ≈ 100 µm or Δ ≈ 10 nl, to alter the ΔΩ/2 in the region 1 Hz obtained for reasonably ambitious tolerances by about a factor of 3. Figure 7c displays a structure that has been computationally optimized [82] with respect to Figure 1 to further amplify ΔΩ (8) in response to tolerances {Δ }. As it would, at the same time, deteriorate the overall reliability of the original product, such a design change of Γ might be better implemented as a distinct, fluidically independent validation structure on the LoaD.…”

“…Amongst the numerous variations of the theme [44,45,[74][75][76][77][78][79][80], so-called centrifugo-pneumatic (CP) dissolvable-film (DF) siphon valves have recently been highlighted for their superior flow control, operational robustness, manufacturability and configurability towards implementing fluidic largerscale integration (LSI) at the backbone of sample-to-answer automation of parallelized, multi-analyte bioassay panels [80][81][82][83].…”

Migration Behavior of Low-Density Particles in Lab-on-a-Disc Devices: Effect of Walls

“…A wide range of applications including clinical chemistry, immunoassay, cell analysis [5,6], and nucleic acid tests [7][8][9], could be demonstrated on a spinning disc [10]. Typical examples of applications of these LOD platforms are sample-to-answer systems for biomedical point-of-care and global diagnostics [11], liquid handling automation for the life sciences (e.g., concentration/purification and amplification of DNA/RNA from a range of bio-samples), process analytical techniques and cell line development for biopharma as well as monitoring the environment, infrastructure, industrial processes and agrifood [12,13].…”