Table 1.

Materials and equipment used in this study

	Catalog No.	Vendor	Location	Comment
Reagents for droplet generation
Pico-Wave 7500	CO96	Sphere Fluidics Limited	Cambridge, UK	Used as carrier fluid
Pico-Surf1 2%–5% (w/w) in NOVEC7500	CO24	Sphere Fluidics Limited	Cambridge, UK	Surfactant for stabilizing droplet formation
Trichloro (1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl) silane	448931	Sigma Aldrich, Merck KGaA	Darmstadt, Germany	Solution for treating master molds before casting
LB medium	L3022	Sigma Aldrich, Merck KGaA	Darmstadt, Germany	Aqueous media that can be used as disperse phase carrier for cell encapsulation
Optical components
Mirrors	ZT405rdc, ZT488rdc, ZT561rdc, ZT640rdc	Chroma	Bellows Falls, VT, USA	Since four lasers can be used, the mirrors must be chosen to guide the four lasers’ lights through the same path to the microfluidic device
Filters	ET510/20m, ET665lp	Chroma	Bellows Falls, VT, USA	Filters are needed to enable only a narrow bandwidth to pass to the PMT and the high-speed camera
Laser Quad Band Set for TIRF applications	TRF89901-EMv2-ET-405/488/561/640 nm	Chroma	Bellows Falls, VT, USA	This cube is needed to guide the laser lights from the epi-fluorescent port to the excitation area and then to the output ports
Optical mounts and stands		Thorlabs	Newton, NJ, USA	These are required to mount all optical components
PMT	H10722-20	Hamamatsu Photonics K. K.	Hamamatsu City, Japan	The PMT produces a voltage output (±5V) that is proportional to the intensity of the received light; this photosensor detects light in a wide wavelength range (400–800 nm)
Sapphire LP/LPX laser of 488 nm	Sapphire 488 LP	Coherent	Santa Clara, CA, USA	These CW lasers are used to provide high-performance excitation sources for various types of fluorescent biosensors
OBIS LX/LS lasers of 405, 561, and 637 nm	OBIS 405LX, OBIS 561LS, OBIS 637LX	Coherent	Santa Clara, CA, USA	These CW lasers are used to provide high-performance excitation sources for various types of fluorescent biosensors
High-speed camera	FastCAM SA-Z type 200K	FastCAM	Chicago, IL, USA	Other high-speed cameras with framerates ∼ 2 kHz can also work
Inverted microscope with two output ports to connect the PMT and the high-speed camera	Eclipse Ti-U	Nikon	Tokyo, Japan	It allows to observe the droplet production, excite and detect fluorescent biosensors, and record all processes
Materials for fabrication
P-type {100} silicon wafer 400 μm, single side polished	2218	University Wafer	South Boston, MA, USA	Substrate used to manufacture the master molds in silicon using DRIE tools
PDMS Sylgard 184	761036	Sigma Aldrich, Merck KGaA	Darmstadt, Germany	Polymer used to manufacture the microfluidic devices
Aquapel water repellent solution	47100	PGW Auto Glass	Cranberry Twp, PA, USA	Solution to render the wetting properties of PDMS hydrophobic
Photoresist	AZ ECI 3027	Microchemicals GmbH	Ulm, Germany	Positive tone photoresist for creating a mask for DRIE
Plasma cleaner	PDC-002 (230 V)	Harrick Plasma	Ithaca, NY, USA	Equipment used to etch organic material and for surface activation
DRIE with ICP	PlasmaPro 100 Estrelas	Oxford Instruments	Bristol, UK	Equipment used for DRIE on the silicon wafer
Electronic Instrumentation
FPGA	NI-7852R	National Instruments	Austin, TX, USA	The FPGA board is the device taking the decisions based on the logical inputs; the analog input configuration is set to the differential configuration
DAQ	NI SCB-68A	National Instruments	Austin, TX, USA	This DAQ unit is used as the interface between the PMT and the FPGA; it is configured in direct feedthrough mode
HVA	623B	Trek	Lockport, NY, USA	HVA amplifies the train of pulses from the waveform generator; ∼ 600–800 V is required to drive the sorter; another critical parameter is the bandwidth of DC (e.g., > 40 kHz) that enables to follow the waveform signal
Waveform generator	33500B	Keysight	Santa Rosa, CA, USA	This device is triggered using the FPGA and DAQ to send a train of pulses
Oscilloscope InfiniiVision 2000 X-Series	DSO-X 2014A	Keysight	Santa Rosa, CA, USA	Instrument used for visualizing the electrical signals
Microfluidic and fluidic handling equipment
The MFCS flow rate platform provided with four 0–2000 mbar pressure sources, a flow board, and four flow sensors size S	MFCS-EZ, Flowboard FLU-S-D	Fluigent	Lowell, MA, USA	Pressure-based platform for controlling and measuring the flow rates of the oil and aqueous solutions through the channels

Note: LB, lysogeny broth; TIRF, total internal reflection fluorescence; PMT, photomultiplier tube; CW, continuous-wave; PDMS, polydimethylsiloxane; DRIE, deep reactive ion etching; ICP, inductively coupled plasma; FPGA, field programable gate array; DAQ, data acquisition; HVA, high voltage amplifier; DC, direct current.