Wall-less channels for fluidic routing and confinement

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Methods and apparatuses for providing wall-less virtual channels (Fig.1). The wall-less channels may be regions such as stripes or other patterns that are defined by polar surface coatings. These wall-less channels may be used with polar solvents and defined by polar surface patterning of narrowly separated top and bottom walls of a chamber filled elsewhere by a non-polar partitioning medium. This provides a simple and easy-to-fabricate interface between the micro and macro worlds in which microfluidic processes are separated from the macro world fluid flow by a narrow veil of immiscible fluid across which an exchange of droplets can be controlled electrically.