A comprehensive review on non-active micro-pumps for microfluidic platforms

In conventional microfluidic systems, the flow drives, and controls rely principally on external pumps, which have severely prevented the applications for point-of-care testing and disposable biomedicine because of the factors such as high price, large volume, and the electricity-fueled. Several modern portable pumps have therefore been built in recent years to resolve this problem. We give a comprehensive description of non-active microfluidic systems pumps in this study. These pumps have been split into two groups in terms of their operating mechanisms: human-powered and passive pumps. The 'human-powered' pumps are directly powered by the human hand or finger; the passive pumps are powered by kinds of basic machinery including capillary control, siphoning, chemical reaction, vacuum pressure, osmotic pressure, and gravity. In addition, many explanations of the configurations, capability and limitations are given. Finally, it discusses emerging developments and potential strategies for extending the usage of the pumps on microfluidic platforms. (topical review)