Symmetry-group-protected microfluidics for multiplexed stress-free manipulations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a symmetry-group-based microfluidic platform enabling stress-free, 3D manipulation of multiple particles simultaneously, by separating displacement and trapping tasks through polyhedral symmetries.

Contribution

It presents a novel microfluidic design leveraging polyhedral symmetries to achieve stress-free, multiplexed 3D particle manipulation with real-time path control.

Findings

Achieved stress-free 3D particle manipulation using symmetry-protected flow modes.

Enabled simultaneous control of multiple particles along programmed paths.

Provided a general framework for symmetry-based microfluidic engineering.

Abstract

Modern micromanipulation techniques typically involve trapping using electromagnetic, acoustic or flow fields that produce stresses on the trapped particles thereby precluding stress-free manipulations. Here, we show that by employing polyhedral symmetries in a multichannel microfluidic design, we can separate the tasks of displacing and trapping a particle into two distinct sets of flow operations, each characterized and protected by their unique groups of symmetries. By combining only the displacing uniform flow modes to entrain and move targeted particles in arbitrary directions, we were able to realize symmetry-protected, stress-free micromanipulation in 3D. Furthermore, we engineered complex, microscale paths by programming and controlling the flow within each channel in real-time, resulting in multiple particles simultaneously following desired paths in the absence of any supervision or feedback. Our work therefore provides a general symmetry-group-based framework for understanding and engineering microfluidics and a novel platform for 3D stress-free manipulations.