iFlow™ Droplet Generator
w. Microfluidic Droplet Generation Chips
Droplet generator is the tool for generating micro/sub-micron sized droplets with highly reproducible capacity. PreciGenome Microfluidic Droplet Generation System PG-DG with droplet generator chips can be used for the rapid preparation of water-in-oil or oil-in-water droplets. Compared to conventional methods, it offers the ability to generate droplets with much higher robustness, precision, and repeatability in a cost-effective way.
The benefits of microfluidic droplet generation can be scaled up to higher throughput. Parallel droplet generators allow high throughput production of monodisperse droplets, fit for applications in the pharmaceuticals, biology, and food industries. With our system, more than 10 million droplets with a diameter of around 50-120um can be generated using our controller within one hour by using our starter kit. Smaller (< 50um) or larger droplets (>120um) are able to be generated with proper chips and reagents.
Working Principle:
The system requires two or more unmixable liquid phases, referred to as the dispersed phase, sometimes called the droplet phase, and the continuous phase. The schematic below illustrates the device with junction in focused-flow geometry designed for droplet generation.
Schematic illustration of enlarged junction, controlled break-up droplet at the orifice. The flow through the orifice enables a controlled droplets break-up, which is required for yielding monodisperse micro-emulsions
PreciGenome Microfluidic Droplet Generation System PG-DG with droplet generator chips can be used for the rapid preparation of water-in-oil or oil-in-water droplets. It generates droplets stable, fast and effectively. The droplets are highly uniform in diameter (CV 0.1-5%). The number and diameter of the droplets can be adjusted according to users’ requirements. The size of the generated droplets is mainly controlled by the channels' geometry, the flow rate ratio of two phases, interfacial tension, etc.
System Benefits:
High Performance & Efficiency
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Mono-disperse droplet
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Low size CV
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Easy setup, plug and play
Cost Effective
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Affordable configurations
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Cost effective solutions
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Open platform
Custom Design & Service
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Research collaboration
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Custom design
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OEM & Contract manufacturing
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Pressure sensor accuracy of ±0.25 %FSS BFSL (Full-Scale Span Best Fit Straight Line), sensor resolution: 0.0061 %
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Pressure stability: 0.005 %
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Liquid flow rate monitoring and control with external flow rate sensor(optional)
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Flow rate repeatability: below 1% of the measured value
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Highest sensitivity down to <1 µl/min
System Specifications:
iFlow Droplet Generation System
-Touchscreen Version
System Contents:
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PG-MF controller, 8ch (optional 4ch), 1pc
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Microfluidic reservoir kit, 15ml, 2sets
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Reservoir tube racks, 2pcs
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Droplet generation chips, 2pcs
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Tubing & connectors kit, 1set
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Liquid flow sensor (optional)
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High-speed imaging system with illuminations (optional)
Part #： PG-DG-8-HSV (TouchScreen 8Channels, with High Speed Imaging Microscope)
PG-DG-8 (TouchScreen 8Channels)
PG-DG-4 (TouchScreen 4Channels)
Droplet Generation System with small volume tanks
Droplet Generation System with median/large volume tanks
Extra Bonus:
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Free droplet generation test chip
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Free consulting from our microfluidic experts
Droplet generation is guaranteed.
iFlow Droplet Generation System
-Light Version
System Includes:
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Reservoir kit 15ml, 2sets
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Tube racks, 2pcs
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Tubing & connectors
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Liquid flow sensor (optional)
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High-speed imaging system with illuminations (optional) (learn more)
Part #: PG-DG-LT2 (Light Version with 2 Channels)
Software:
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Integrated touch screen with intuitive GUI for touchscreen version system; Free UI software for windows/linux
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Plug & play
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One click to generate millions of droplets
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Easy setup for complex timing control
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Compatible with our high-speed imaging system
Software GUI for simple operation and complex timing control
UI for real-time sensor data (pressure/ flow rate) monitoring
Microfluidic Droplet Generator Chips
PreciGenome offers a variety of droplet generator chips in different materials to meet most of our customers' application requirements.
Three types of materials, including polymers, glass and silicon, are commonly used to fabricate microfluidic chips. Material of the chip is selected depending on the application requirements, including chip design, types of solvent or reagent used for experiment, needs of the application, budget, and fabrication time, etc. Usually, for research purposes the materials for the chip fabrication generally prioritize performance of the device. For mass production of a products, the factors of production cost, reliability and ease of use are considered first.
Example Droplet Generation Videos and Images
Particles (beads, cells, etc.) isolation experiment
Double emulsion generation
Applications of Microfluidic Droplets
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Cell encapsulation
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Single cell analysis
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Hydrogel synthesis
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Foams
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Double emulsion
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Drug delivery
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Polymer synthesis
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Cell culture
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Digital PCR
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Droplet-based PCR
Digital PCR system as a new generations of Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system has been an important tool in genomics and biological fields. Especially, droplet digital PCR benefits from the technological advancement of microdroplet scale PCR, enabling the construction of single-molecule PCR-on-a-chip device. Droplet PCR operates by assembling ingredients, forming droplets, combining droplets, thermocycling, and then processing results by using water-in-oil systems.
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DNA sequencing
Droplet-based microfluidic systems have been used for DNA sequencing
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Drug Delivery
Droplet microfluidics enables useful platforms for drug delivery vehicles and drug molecules as novel functional materials. Because of uniform size, monodisperse size distribution, and desired properties, droplet microfluidics demonstrates promising potential for production of complex drug systems.
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Protein crystallization
Droplet microfluidics technology has been used for investigating the conditions necessary for protein crystallization.
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Cell culture
Droplets are able to be used as as incubators for single cells. Due to the high throughput, incubation in up to millions of droplets offers powerful capacity of characterizing cell population based on cells' kinetic behavior such as protein secretion, enzyme activity, etc.
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Chemical synthesis
Droplet-based microfluidics has become an important method for chemical synthesis. Droplets are able to act as individual reactions, which are free from contamination from outside. Meanwhile, it also offer benefits of high throughput, small reagent volumes, low cost, portability, a high degree of synthetic control, rapid reaction, etc.
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Microparticle synthesis
Advanced particles and particle-based materials, such as polymer particles, microcapsules, nanocrystals, and photonic crystal beads can be synthesized by the droplet generation system. The droplet generation system is also able to synthesize nanoparticles, like colloidal CdS and CdS/CdSe core-shell nanoparticles.
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Gel Particle Synthesis
In the last decade, the gel particles (hydrogels, microgels, and nanogels) has been an area of interest for many researchers and industries. Because of high throughput, mono-dispersity of particles, and low cost, droplet-based microfluidic systems have been widely used for synthesizing these hydrogel particles.
Resources
Documents:
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iFlow Droplet Generation System Brochure
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Droplet generation technical note
