Flow cells

Flow cells are microfluidic chips with one or more channels of a certain length that guide the fluid. Inlets and outlets allow a continuous flow. The dimensions of the microfluidic channels can be in the same range as cell diameters, which makes flow cells extremely useful for the assessment of single cells.

Geometries and channel lengths

The chips in our webstore have channels of different lengths and geometries. The Thin bottom flow cell is available in three different versions. They all have three channels of equal length, but varying in width. The Cross channel flow cell has one long and two short channels. If an extra-long cell exposure time is needed for your observations, we have the Serpentine flow cell, which has a very long meandering channel.

Flow cells can be made of different materials. When fluorescent markers with emissions above 600nm are used, D263 bio glass will limit autofluorescence. For extremely demanding applications that require for instance UV-light, we can manufacture custom flow cells in fused silica glass.

Optical transparency

The etching technique with which we process the glass, creates smooth and optical transparent channels. Due to the extreme smoothness of the channels, the resulting flows can be fully laminar. The thin bottom flow cell is also suitable for confocal microscopy and allows high resolution imaging.

Flow cells are commonly used for cell counting, cell sorting, cell manipulation, cell imaging, particle counting, the detection of biomarkers and flow visualization. A flow cell is an excellent tool for these purposes because of its capillary channels and excellent optical qualities.

Resealable flow cells

Besides hermetically sealed flow cells, we also offer resealable flow cells. The top and bottom of these chips can be opened and closed multiple times, giving continuous access to the inside of the microfluidic chip. This also allows surface modification of the glass surface by spotting or dispensing DNA or protein arrays on the surface prior to the experiment.

To ensure an airtight seal between the top and bottom layer, a gasket (made from a solvent resistant elastomer) is applied to the top layer. The bottom layer is a smooth glass slide. Due to the high chemical resistance of the elastomer and glass, the resealable flow cell can be cleaned and reused several times.