• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.93-99
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• 2013

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a dry eye test method using a paper based microfluidic device that improves inaccuracy caused by using one of current point-of-care dry eye tests such as Shirmer's. Methods: Wax printed hydrophilic chromatography papers were dyed with anthocyanin extracts to detect colorimetric display of liquid samples with varying pH. Fluid distribution rates were measured using artificial tears and human tears directly from 32 subjects. Results: With Shirmer's, fluid distribution rates with small amount of samples (less than $0.5{\mu}l$) were not displayed. However, with paper based microfluidic device, fluid imbibition distances over time were clearly showed. Also clinical results of dry eye from newly developed paper based microfluidic device showed correlation with the results from tear break up time tests. Conclusions: The newly developed paper based microfluidic devices were easy to use and exhibited more accurate clinical results than current dry eye point of care tests such as Shirmer's.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.189-196
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• 2013

Dielectrophoresis(DEP) is useful in manipulation and separation of micro-sized particles including biological samples such as bacteria, blood cells, and cancer cells in a micro-fluidic device. Especially, those separation and manipulation techniques using DEP in combination of micro fabrication technique have been researched more and more. Recently, it is revealed that a window structure of insulating layer in microfluidic DEP chip is key role in trap of micro-particles around the window structure. However, the trap phenomenon-driven by DEP force gradient did not fully understand and is still illusive. In this study, we characterize the trap mechanism and efficiency with different shapes of window in a microfluidic DEP chip. To do this characterization, we fabricated 4 different windows shapes such as rhombus, circle, squares, and hexagon inside a micro-fluidic chip, and performed micro-sized particles manipulation experiments as varying the frequency and voltage of AC signal. Moreover, the numerical simulation with the same parameters that were used in the experiment was also performed in order to compare the simulation results and the experimental results. Those comparison shows that both results are closely matched. This study may be helpful in design and development of microfluidic DEP chip for trapping micro-scaled biological particle.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.302-307
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• 2012

We have designed, fabricated and tested an integrated microfluidic chip with a Planar Hall Effect (PHE) sensor. The sensor was constructed by sequentially sputtering Ta/NiFe/Cu/NiFe/IrMn/Ta onto glass. The microfluidic channel was fabricated with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) using soft lithography. Magnetic nanoparticles suspended in hexadecane were used as ferrofluid, of which the saturation magnetisation was 3.4 emu/cc. Droplets of ferrofluid were generated in a T-junction of a microfluidic channel after hydrophilic modification of the PDMS. The size and interval of the droplets were regulated by pressure on the ferrofluid channel inlet. The PHE sensor detected the flowing droplets of ferrofluid, as expected from simulation results. The shape of the signal was dependent on both the distance of the magnetic droplet from the sensor and the droplet length. The sensor was able to detect a magnetic moment of $2{\times}10^{-10}$ emu at a distance of 10 ${\mu}m$. This study provides an enhanced understanding of the magnetic parameters of ferrofluid in a microfluidic channel using a PHE sensor and will be used for a sample inlet module inside of integrated magnetic lab-on-a-chip systems for the analysis of biomolecules.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.151-156
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• 2013

Crystallization of $CaCO_3$ is practiced on a polymethylsiloxane (PDMS) - based microfluidic system. Liquid- liquid reaction was investigated by mixing calcium chloride ($CaCl_2$) and sodium carbonate ($Na_2CO_3$) solution to crystallize $CaCO_3$. Aspartic acid (Asp) was added to investigate the morphology change such as vaterite and calcite. Suitable ratio of $Na_2CO_3$ and $CaCl_2$ was searched for initial seed formation. Christmas tree model was used as microfluidic device to form concentration gradient of $Na_2CO_3$ and $CaCl_2$. After observing microfluidic channel by using optical microscope, we found that seeds of $CaCO_3$ were formed under the condition that the ratio of $Na_2CO_3$ and $CaCl_2$ was 2:1. Morphology of crystals were also observed as $CaCO_3$ crystals grow. When Asp was added, vaterite crystal was more frequently found in two morphologies (vaterite and calcite) and seed formation and crystal growth were inhibited.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.140-150
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• 2007

A simple, label-free microfluidic cell purification method is presented for separation of cancer cells by exploiting difference in cell adhesion. To maximize the adhesion difference, three types of polymeric nanostructures (50nm pillars, 50nm perpendicular and 50nm parallel lines with respect to the direction of flow) were fabricated using UV-assisted capillary moulding and included inside a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic channel bonded onto glass substrate. The adhesion force of human breast epithelial cells (MCF10A) and human breast carcinoma (MCF7) was measured independently by injecting each cell line into the microfluidic device followed by culture for a period of time (e.g., one, two, and three hours). Then, the cells bound to the floor of a microfluidic channel were detached by increasing the flow rate of medium in a stepwise fashion. It was found that the adhesion force of MCF10A was always higher than that of MCF cells regardless of culture time and surface nanotopography at all flow rates, resulting in a label-free detection and separation of cancer cells. For the cell types used in our study, the optimum separation was found for 2 hours culture on 50nm parallel line pattern followed by flow-induced detachment at a flow rate of $300{\mu}l/min$.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2019

This study presents a novel method for preparing monodisperse polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) microparticles in a dispensing needle based microfluidic device. The microfluidic devices are manufactured by manually assembling various off-the-shelf products without using additional equipment. In this microfluidic device, the volumetric flow rates of the dispersed phase of PEGDA solution and the continuous phase of oil are controlled to generate monodisperse PEGDA droplets. The PEGDA droplet contains photo-initiator thus it is crosslinked to microparticle by photopolymerization at the ends of the device. The particle size is easily controlled by adjusting the volume flow rate and the size of the microfluidic device. The monodispersity of the particles is calculated by a coefficient of variation of 2.57%. To demonstrate the biological applications of PEGDA particles, cells are encapsulated and observed for proliferation and viability.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2021

Microfluidic chip technology is a research focus in biology, chemistry, and medicine, for example. However, microfluidic chips are rarely applied in imaging, especially in ghost imaging. Thus in this work we propose a ghost-imaging system, in which we deploy a novel microfluidic chip modulator (MCM) constructed of double-layer zigzag micro pipelines. While in traditional situations a spatial light modulator (SLM) and supporting computers are required, we can get rid of active modulation devices and computers with this proposed scheme. The corresponding simulation analysis verifies good feasibility of the scheme, which can ensure the quality of data transmission and achieve convenient, fast ghost imaging passively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.1101-1110
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• 2023

Streptococcus mutans is the primary causative agent of caries, which is one of the most common human diseases. Thus, rapid and early detection of cariogenic bacteria is critical for its prevention. This study investigated the combination of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and microfluid technology to quantitatively detect S. mutans. A low-cost, rapid microfluidic chip using LAMP technology was developed to amplify and detect bacteria at 2.2-2.2 × 10⁶ colony-forming units (CFU)/ml and its detection limits were compared to those of standard polymerase chain reaction. A visualization system was established to quantitatively determine the experimental results, and a functional relationship between the bacterial concentration and quantitative results was established. The detection limit of S. mutans using this microfluidic chip was 2.2 CFU/ml, which was lower than that of the standard approach. After quantification, the experimental results showed a good linear relationship with the concentration of S. mutans, thereby confirming the effectiveness and accuracy of the custom-made integrated LAMP microfluidic system for the detection of S. mutans. The microfluidic system described herein may represent a promising simple detection method for the specific and rapid testing of individuals at risk of caries.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.545-555
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• 2010

Recently, droplet-based microfluidic systems are widely used in various areas ranging from fundamental science including chemistry, biology, and physics to material science and engineering. This article reviews recent development in the droplet based microfluidic system from basic fabrication of tiny device, principle of droplet formation, merging, mixing, control of droplets, and application for the synthesis of novel functional materials. We discuss strong advantages of the droplet based microfluidics in point of control of particle size, morphologies, shapes, and structures.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.3.2-3.2
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• 2009

Microfluidics and BioMEMStechnology has increasingly been used as a tool for studying small volumes oftissue and even individual cells. One of the most important benefits ofmicrofluidic technology is the potential to build devices that analyze and sortmammalian cells. The "sorting problem" typically requires that a fewcells be selected and isolated from a larger population of hundreds, thousandsor even millions of other cells. For example, cancer tumor cells may resideamong a large population of healthy cells, but it would be of great interest toidentify, isolate and study only the cancer cells. In another application, onemay want to determine the number of white blood cells within a sample of blood.We have developed microfluidic devices that enable researchers to select cellsfrom a population by a variety of methods, including antibody staining,dielectrophoretic selection, and physical size selection. These devices haveapplications in cancer research where cancer cells must be identified fromnormal tissue, but where only small samples of tissue are available. In thistalk, we will present some of our microfluidic cell sorting devices, discusstheir physical principles, and their use in biological applications.