Microfluidic cytometers with integrated on-chip optical components for blood cell analysis

In the last two decades, microfluidic technologies have shown the great potential in developing portable and point-of care testing blood cell analysis devices. It is challenging to integrate all free-space detecting components in a single microfluidic platform. In this paper, a microfluidic cytometer with integrated on-chip optical components was demonstrated. To facilitate on-chip detection, the device integrated optical fibers and on-chip microlens with microfluidic channels on one polydimethylsiloxane layer by standard soft photolithography. This compact design increased the sensitivity of the device and also eliminated time-consuming free-space optical alignments. Polystyrene particles, together with red blood cells and platelets, were measured in the microfluidic cytometer by small angle forward scatter. Experimental results indicated that the performance of the microfluidic device was comparable to a conventional cytometer. And it was also demonstrated its ability to detect on-chip optical signals in a highly compact, simple, truly portable and low cost format which was perfect suitable for point-of-care testing clinical hematology diagnostics.