State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200050, China
Songsheng Liu
State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200050, China
Chunping Jia
State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200050, China
Hongju Mao
State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200050, China
Qinghui Jin
State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200050, China
Jianlong Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200050, China
Hongbo Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200050, China
Droplet-based microfluidics has recently emerged as a potential platform for studies of single-cell, directed evolution, and genetic sequencing. In droplet-based microfluidics, adding reagents into drops is one of the most important functions. In this paper, we develop a new self-triggered picoinjector to add controlled volumes of reagent into droplets at kilohertz rates. In the picoinjector, the reagent injecting is triggered by the coming droplet itself, without needing a droplet detection module. Meanwhile, the dosing volume can be precisely controlled. These features make the system more practical and reliable. We expect the new picoinjector will find important applications of droplet-based microfluidics in automated biological assay, directed evolution, enzyme assay, and so on.
