Capillary microfluidic chip with integrated pump and valve actuator

Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) is a long term blood glucose marker currently only available by laboratory testing. Main hurdle for point-of-care testing of HbA1c is the necessary on-chip sample preparation. One limiting factor is the lack of miniaturized, time-controlled liquid actuation functionality. In the presented concept electrochemical pumping in an active and disposable microfluidic lab-on-a-chip is used for the required flow control. In contrast to previous works the sample is directly used as working liquid for pumping and valving. A novel gelbased check valve approach is used to avoid undesired liquid movement towards the inlet of the chip. This method results in a miniaturization of the chip design and sample volume, the combination of passive and active microfluidics, and the elimination of external handling steps. The system utilizes well known technologies like hot embossing, physical vapor deposition (PVD) and laser micro machining to realize the innovative chip concept. The complex parameter HbA1c is supposed to be determined from a drop of capillary blood (5ìl) after a chip internal sample preparation step.