Abstract
This paper presents a microfluidic array that is capable of randomly storing and discharging droplets on demand. A PDMS micro-device with multi-layer fluidic channels dynamically re-configured by diaphragm valves is used to realize the random access process. In the prototype demonstration, droplets with desired geometries and compositions are generated, selectively stored, and discharged from a 4×4 array, which employs just 4 (=2×log 2 4) control inputs for the operation. With droplets functioning as micro-reactors, the proposed random-access storage array could potentially serve as a platform for parallel and multi-step reaction control, which is desired for high-throughput screening applications.