US 12,030,055 B2
Microfluidic analytical device
Thomas Henry Isaac, Cambridge (GB); Pedro Cunha, Cambridge (GB); Eoin Sheridan, Cambridge (GB); David Love, Cambridge (GB); Rebecca Palmer, Cambridge (GB); Douglas J Kelly, Cambridge (GB); and Gareth Podd, Cambridge (GB)
Assigned to LIGHTCAST DISCOVERY LTD, Cambridge (GB)
Filed by LIGHTCAST DISCOVERY LTD, Cambridge (GB)
Filed on Mar. 30, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/708,342.
Application 17/708,342 is a division of application No. 16/625,094, granted, now 11,318,472, previously published as PCT/EP2018/066574, filed on Jun. 21, 2018.
Claims priority of application No. 17177204 (EP), filed on Jun. 21, 2017; and application No. 17180391 (EP), filed on Jul. 7, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2022/0219173 A1, Jul. 14, 2022
Int. Cl. B01L 3/00 (2006.01); C12Q 1/6869 (2018.01)
CPC B01L 3/502792 (2013.01) [C12Q 1/6869 (2013.01); B01L 2200/0673 (2013.01); B01L 2300/0864 (2013.01); B01L 2300/0887 (2013.01); B01L 2300/089 (2013.01); B01L 2300/165 (2013.01); B01L 2300/168 (2013.01); B01L 2400/0427 (2013.01)] 9 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A device for manipulating many thousands of microdroplets simultaneously by optically-mediated electrowetting (oEWOD), the device comprising
a chip comprising a first dielectric layer;
a reflective screen illuminated by light from LEDs configured to rapidly create and destroy highly complex patterns of ephemeral electrowetting locations or points of impingement of the light in the first dielectric layer thereby enabling the microdroplets to be precisely steered using closely controlled electrowetting forces;
a microprocessor configured to manipulate the points of impingement in order to create pathways along which the microdroplets pass and further configured to synchronise the movement of each microdroplet relative to each other; and
a fluorescence or Raman-scattering detection system including a second electromagnetic radiation configured to stimulate fluorescence emissions from the microdroplets; and a photodetector to detect these emissions.