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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 May 4.
Published in final edited form as: Ann Biomed Eng. 2011 May 10;39(8):2242–2251. doi: 10.1007/s10439-011-0323-4

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2

Measurements of BLM capacitance over time at different perfusion flow rates up to 3.5 µL/min using a device with a 140 µm diameter membrane aperture. For flow rates up to 2.5 µL/min, negligible increases in membrane capacitance are observed, indicating that the membranes used in this study remain stable over this range. For higher flow rates, capacitance increases linearly with time, corresponding to an observed outward migration of the membrane boundary toward the aperture limits. Regardless of the flow rate, halting perfusion immediately returns the capacitance to its original state provided that the membrane has not been ruptured. At 3.5 µL/min, it takes approximately 5 min to reach the critical rupture point. For chips containing smaller apertures on the order of ~50 µm, maximum continuous pumping flow rates of 10 µL/min are routinely achieved.