Novel Dome‐Shaped Structures for High‐Efficiency Patterning of Individual Microbeads in a Microfluidic Device

A soft-lithography technique is used to fabricate a microfluidic device with very unique dome-shaped structures (see image), which are essential for high-efficiency immobilization and patterning of single beads. Immobilization of the microbeads was achieved by physical entrapment of the beads and patterning was performed at a relatively high flow rate. With such features, encoded microbeads can be incorporated into microfluidic devices to carry out biological assays, significantly increasing their multiplexing capability.