Instantaneous and pulseless flow into microfluidic chips

As a consequence, a syringe pump or a peristaltic pump can establish a stable flow rate in an elastic tubing environment; but it will result in long equilibrium times. On the other hand, using a syringe pump with rigid tubing will result in shorter response times; but important pulsations will appear due to mechanical hysteresis.

Thus, for many microfluidic applications, one cannot use syringe pumps or/and peristaltic pumps without facing hysteresis, long equilibration times, irreproducibility and/or pulsing flow phenomena.

That is why such fluid handling devices usually don’t fit with experimentations at a microfluidic scale.

How to overcome such drawbacks?

Controlling flows with Elveflow® pressure pumps leads to completely different behaviours. Time response no longer depends on the compliance of the tubing and microsystem; once the pressure is applied, the effect spreads instantaneously in the whole device. Besides, in many cases, adjusting flows in a microfluidic network controlled by the Elveflow® pressure pump is easier and more accurate than using volume-based pumps.