Figure 1.

Schematic illustration of the microfluidic chip sorter and its sorting mechanism

(A, top) Microfluidic chip cell sorter with a piezo element on a pressure chamber. (A, bottom left) Schematic design of the chip comprising a sheath flow part, optical detection part, and sorting part. (A, bottom right) Flow streamlines of sheath flow, sample flow, and gate flow. (B, top) A representative waveform applied to the piezo element to acquire a target particle. (B, bottom left) The upstream flow generated by gate flow prevents particles from entering the collection chamber. (B, bottom middle) Pressure chamber volume changes and negative pressure is generated to acquire particles of interest when a driving voltage is applied. When the applied voltage is released, the piezo element returns to the original position. Upstream flow is generated at that time (B, bottom right), and then the flow state returns quickly to the original state (B, bottom left).