Microfluidic Circuits: Self‐Sorting of Deformable Particles in an Asynchronous Logic Microfluidic Circuit (Small 3/2013)

A microfluidic circuit described by R. Karnik and co-workers on page 375 can automatically sort deformable particles based on the hydrodynamic resistance they induce in a constrained microfluidic channel while flowing through it. The feedforward loop in the circuit is designed to dynamically modulate the flow rates at the bifurcating junction based on the hydrodynamic resistance that the particle induces just before arriving at the junction. A particle with hydrodynamic resistance above a certain threshold (green) is sorted, while a particle with hydrodynamic resistance below the threshold (orange) is rejected. The arrows indicate the magnitudes of flow rates in the channels.