Note: A microfluidic chip setup for capillarity-assisted particle assembly

Abstract

We developed a microfluidic chip setup for capillarity-assisted particle assembly (CAPA). A capillary bridge is formed between the aperture of a silicon chip and the assembly template. The bridge is fed with particle suspension through a microfluidic channel on the chip top side. With this setup, we can control the particle assembly location and tune the suspension composition during particle assembly. In this note, we describe the chip setup, the CAPA process using the microfluidic chip, and results of complex particle assemblies, such as composite particle arrays and particle gradients, that could not be obtained using a conventional CAPA setup. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.