Engagement with Epocal to quantify the variation in mechanical properties in their microfluidic-based sensor valves

Epocal制造和制造一种具有成本效益的诊断测试卡和无线读卡器，适用于要求高灵敏度和实验室质量精度的低容量测试应用：医生办公室、医院床边或患者家中。血液分析是通过将样本通过聚合物膜注入柔性卡片上的储存器中，然后通过一系列不同的传感器进行的。然而，由于用于制造这些重要阀门的聚合物薄膜的多样性，可能会发生故障注射，从而导致卡内阀门开口出现故障批次和问题。因此，为了缓解这个问题，在这笔赠款的帮助下，我们将：1)更好地了解聚合物涂层中可变性的来源；2)开发一种新的程序，用于在卡片之前评估薄膜

Epocal builds and manufactures a cost-effective diagnostic test card and wireless card reader intended for low volume testing applications where high sensitivity and lab quality accuracy is required: physician's office, hospital bedside or patients' home. Analysis of the blood is performed by injecting a sample into a reservoir on the flexible card through a polymer membrane which then travels through a series of different sensors. However due to variability of the polymer films used for the fabrication of these important valves, malfunctioning injections can take place resulting in failed lots and issues with the in-card valve opening. Therefore to alleviate this problem, with the help of this grant we will: 1) build a better understanding of the source of variability in polymer coating and 2) develop a new procedure for assessing films prior to card