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Optical microfluidic bubble detector

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MLS – Microfluidic Bubble Detector

Elveflow provides a unique microfluidic bubble detector. It can identify if liquid is present in clear tubes. It can be plugged directly onto our OB1 flow controller, or it can be used as a standalone unit with the Sensor Reader and another instrument.

The sensor is able to register the presence of fluids inside clear tubing, trigger a signal to another instrument and act accordingly – like stop, wait a certain amount of time, allow enough flow to clear the tubing, or reset the sensor.

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The microfluidic bubble detector comes in two different housings suited to the use with 1/16″ or 1/4″ outside diameter tubes.

Advantages :

Reliable non invasive technique
Cost effective compared to camera check
Based on true/false logic
Large compatibility: wide range of tubing size
Software average functions
Use anywhere in your setup
Prevents damage in cells with bubble bursts
Setup automation (possibility to use if conditions)

Applications

Bubble detection
Liquid level sensing
Blood processing equipment
Patent connected medical devices
Perform bilateral recirculation based on air detection

One particular application worth to mention is using the sensor as a microfluidic bubble detector. Bubbles are a big challenge to address in microfluidics, as they can induce flow modifications or interact with the experiment and cause damages to the sample. One can monitor the apparition of microfluidic bubbles (change of the working fluid) at any given point of his setup and automate the experiment accordingly like, increase the pressure, switching valves to direct the bubble in another fluidic path for instance. For further information check out the example tab on this same page.

The microfluidic bubble detector detection is based on the measurement of the optical path and the variation of this path when the medium flowing is changing.

A light beam is emitted by a LED at known power. This light beam goes through the capillary and the fluid passing through. It is then collected by an NPN silicon phototransistor. This phototransistor converts the light power into an electrical power.

When a fluid changes, the optical index and the light absorption coefficient change accordingly. It induces a change in the electrical power and allows to detect changes in the fluid.

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Dedicated software module

Microfluidic Bubble-detector-module-computer-software

Thanks to an intuitive module, the Elveflow® Smart Interface allows to take out the best of the microfluidic bubble detector instruments from the simplest commands for beginners to the most complex manipulations for experts… More information about the module.

Control your experiments through C, Python, Matlab®, Labview® or the Elveflow® Smart Interface. The Elveflow® Smart Interface is a software application offering all the functionalities that experimentalists need. Get a glimpse of what’s doable here!

Set-up

Set-up diagram

Example of an application: Bilateral Medium Recirculation

Based on the liquid detection principle, you can perform Medium recirculation without any recirculating valve, using the optical sensor, the OB1 Mk3 flow controller and our powerful scheduler. See more

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Material

OB1 Mk3 Flow Controller
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Bubble detector

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Sample reservoirs

Organ on a chip (Aline Inc.)

[TS-VCSC-Icon-List icon=”ts-awesome-check”]Elveflow® pressure & flow control instrument (OB1 MK3)[/TS-VCSC-Icon-List][TS-VCSC-Icon-List icon=”ts-awesome-check”]Sample reservoirs (a Small Reservoir, Medium Reservoir or a Large Microfluidic Reservoir), one for each medium sample[/TS-VCSC-Icon-List][TS-VCSC-Icon-List icon=”ts-awesome-check”]Microfluidic device (here an Organ on a chip microfluidic chip from Aline Inc…)[/TS-VCSC-Icon-List]

Apply pressure on line 1.
When tube 1 is empty bubbles will appear.
The liquid sensor 1 detects the bubbles and then pressure in line 1 is turned off. Simultaneously a pressure is applied in line 2.
Then, when the tube 2 is empty, bubbles will appear.
The liquid sensor 2 detects the bubbles and the pressure in line 2 is turned off. Simultaneously, a pressure is applied in line 1.
It can be continued as many times as you want.

The microfluidic liquid sensor has many applications. This is one is a smart way to perform bidirectional recirculation without using valves.