A centrifugal compact disc (CD) microfluidic platform with reservoirs, micro-channels, and valves can be employed for implementing a complete immunoassay. Detection or biosensor chambers are either coated for immuno-interaction or a biosensor chip is inserted in them. On microfluidic CDs featuring such multi-step chemical/biological processes, the biosensor chamber must be repeatedly filled with fluids such as enzymes solutions, buffers, and washing solutions. After each filling step, the biosensor chamber needs to be evacuated by a passive siphoning process to prepare it for the next step in the assay. However, rotational speed dependency and limited space on a CD are two big obstacles to performing such repetitive filling and siphoning steps. In this work, a unique thermo-pneumatic (TP) Push-Pull pumping method is employed to provide a superior alternative biosensor chamber filling and evacuation technique. The proposed technique is demonstrated on two CD designs. The first design features a simple two-step microfluidic process to demonstrate the evacuation technique, while the second design shows the filling and evacuation technique with an example sequence for an actual immunoassay. In addition, the performance of the filling and evacuation technique as a washing step is also evaluated quantitatively and compared to the conventional manual bench top washing method. The two designs and the performance evaluation demonstrate that the technique is simple to implement, reliable, easy to control, and allows for repeated push-pulls and thus filling and emptying of the biosensor chamber. Furthermore, by addressing the issue of rotational speed dependency and limited space concerns in implementing repetitive filling and evacuation steps, this newly introduced technique increases the flexibility of the microfluidic CD platform to perform multi-step biological and chemical processes.

The development of micro-power generators for centrifugal microfluidic discs enhances the platform as a green point-of-care diagnostic system and eliminates the need for attaching external peripherals to the disc. In this work, we present micro-power generators that harvest energy from the disc's rotational movement to power biomedical applications on the disc. To implement these ideas, we developed two types of micro-power generators using piezoelectric films and an electromagnetic induction system. The piezoelectric-based generator takes advantage of the film's vibration during the disc's rotational motion, whereas the electromagnetic induction-based generator operates on the principle of current generation in stacks of coil exposed to varying magnetic flux. We have successfully demonstrated that at the spinning speed of 800 revolutions per minute (RPM) the piezoelectric film-based generator is able to produce up to 24 microwatts using 6 sets of films and the magnetic induction-based generator is capable of producing up to 125 milliwatts using 6 stacks of coil. As a proof of concept, a custom made localized heating system was constructed to test the capability of the magnetic induction-based generator. The heating system was able to achieve a temperature of 58.62 °C at 2200 RPM. This development of lab-on-a-disc micro power generators preserves the portability standards and enhances the future biomedical applications of centrifugal microfluidic platforms.

In this paper, we propose an easy-to-implement passive liquid valve (PLV) for the microfluidic compact-disc (CD). This valve can be implemented by introducing venting chambers to control the air flow of the source and destination chambers. The PLV mechanism is based on equalizing the main forces acting on the microfluidic CD (i.e., the centrifugal and capillary forces) to control the burst frequency of the source chamber liquid. For a better understanding of the physics behind the proposed PLV, an analytical model is described. Moreover, three parameters that control the effectiveness of the proposed valve, i.e., the liquid height, liquid density, and venting chamber position with respect to the CD center, are tested experimentally. To demonstrate the ability of the proposed PLV valve, microfluidic liquid switching and liquid metering are performed. In addition, a Bradford assay is performed to measure the protein concentration and evaluated in comparison to the benchtop procedure. The result shows that the proposed valve can be implemented in any microfluidic process that requires simplicity and accuracy. Moreover, the developed valve increases the flexibility of the centrifugal CD platform for passive control of the liquid flow without the need for an external force or trigger.

Centrifugal microfluidic platforms have emerged as point-of-care diagnostic tools. However, the unidirectional nature of the centrifugal force limits the available space for multi-step processes on a single microfluidic disc. To overcome this limitation, a passive pneumatic pumping method actuated at high rotational speeds has been previously proposed to pump liquid against the centrifugal force. In this paper, a novel micro-balloon pumping method that relies on elastic energy stored in a latex membrane is introduced. It operates at low rotational speeds and pumps a larger volume of liquid towards the centre of the disc. Two different micro-balloon pumping mechanisms have been designed to study the pump performance at a range of rotational frequencies from 0 to 1500 rpm. The behaviour of the micro-balloon pump on the centrifugal microfluidic platforms has been theoretically analysed and compared with the experimental data. The experimental data show that the developed pumping method dramatically decreases the required rotational speed to pump liquid compared to the previously developed pneumatic pumping methods. It also shows that within a range of rotational speed, a desirable volume of liquid can be stored and pumped by adjusting the size of the micro-balloon.