Microfluidics platform of the d'Alembert Institute allows to build microfluidic components in PDMS / glass or polymer-based or photoresists technologies.These microfluidic components that can integrate mechanical, electrical, optical and fluidic fonctions are a major asset in the study of chemical and biological systems such as those we are studying at the d'Alembert Institute; indeed, the scales of tools are in line with the size and scale of the studied phenomena. The realization and implementation of such microfluidic systems require the convergence of multidisciplinary expertise in chemistry, physics and biology, availaible at the d'Alembert Institute.The microfluidic platform consists of two rooms. A first one (35 m2) is dedicated to the production of components and a second (25 m2) in which previously made components are measured and tested on different experimental set-up.
The first room is divided into 3 specific workstations allowing the use of chemicals in controlled environment (control of the dust level, yellow light). It shares equipments necessary for the manufacturing of microfluidic systems:
The second room offers the possibility of mounting experiments in analytical chemistry or biology. This room includes fixed and "open" set-up dedicated to internal or collaborative projects. It contains fluorescence microscopes, electronics electrical pulse generations etc. fluorescence measurements benches, supplying system for circuits etc.
Applications developed so far on the platform comprise, firstly, the
chemical sensors of pollutant cations, chips for the synthesis of nanocrystals and secondly,
the biochips. The platform receives internal projects but also the collaborations between teams of the Institute and external teams of public or private establishments under contract ANR, industrial contracts (IEF, LAC, IGR, EDF, LNE, Central Supelec, CNAM ... )