Abstract
This paper presents a novel integration scheme that can readily embed magnetic alloy microstructures into microfluidic systems. Magnetically- responsive, carbon-coated iron nanoparticles are dispersed in a low-melting-temperature In52/Sn48 alloy. When energized in an AC magnetic field, the Fe-In52/Sn48 alloy is selectively melted at ~120°C by induction heating, and inject-molded to form structures with desired geometries. In the prototype demonstration, a droplet-based microfluidic system with integrated droplet manipulation and detection functions is fabricated and characterized. It is demonstrated that the embedded magnetic structures can be utilized to control and sense the local electric/magnetic/temperature fields, and therefore manipulate and detect droplets as desired. Copyright © (2011) by the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society.