Characterization of passive microfluidic mixers fabricated using soft lithography

This work characterizes microfluldic mixers fabricated using soft lithography without grooves or with grooves on the top and/or bottom of the channels. The purpose of this Study was to investigate whether grooves on the top and bottom of the channel significantly improve mixing in microfluidic systems. The channels studied were 200 pin wide with repeating sets of alternating patterns of diagonal stripes and chevrons. The study employed confocal microscopy to investigate the mixing of a 0. 1 wt% fluorescein solution with a de-ionized water solution. The results of the study indicate a 10% improvement in mixing over systems with grooves only on the top of the channel.