SBIR Phase I: A Universal Connector for High-Density Microfluidic Chip Interfaces

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The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to advance the lab-on-a-chip and other related life science platforms by the introduction of a new standardized microfluidic chip interface. The proposed project advances a novel interface to advance the applications and capabilities of microfluidic chips in both medical and non-medical fields, including dramatically increasing the rate at which doctors and medical researchers can prepare and perform diagnostic tests. The interface enables easy interoperability of devices as the chips can be freely switched out while the result of the hardware remains the same. The success of this project could lead to great breakthroughs in bioenergy, medical diagnostics, and drug therapeutics.The proposed project undertakes the development of chip interfaces with reduced size and increased channel density by making use of novel interfacing and sealing methods, on a reusable micro-patterned surface. While the technology exists to fabricate microfluidic chips with much smaller dimensions, with more complex on-chip operations, and at a reduced cost, the current limitation is the size of the interfaces bridging the microscopic world of the fluid microchip with the macroscopic world of the laboratory. The work proposed herein could enable chips with 16x the density of sample channels, allowing for vastly more complex diagnostics to be performed and thereby vastly reducing the sample volume needed for accurate diagnostics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.