Microfluidics Device Manufacturing Using the Technique of 3D Printing

Abstract

The Microfluidics emerged at the end of the 1970’s decade as a result of the use of the technology responsible for the development of micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) that utilized the infrastructure and well-established manufacturing techniques for microelectronics. Initially, silicon was used as substrate for the manufacture of micros systems, however in the last decades it has been replaced by other materials like glass, polymers and ceramic. Currently the most widely used technique in the fabrication of Microfluidic devices is the microlithography. However, besides having a high operating cost, this manufacturing technique requires additional procedures for adapting the interfaces of micro scale to macro scale (e.g. connections), which makes it even more complex. 3D printing technique used in the fabrication of microfluidic devices can overcome these difficulties and become a viable alternative, since it has the ability to fabricate devices in a single printing step. In addition to removing the need for additional procedures relating to adaptations of the interfaces, this technique allows to produce devices with circular sections channels. In this work microfluidic devices are manufactured according to the technique of 3D printing. They were tested for the production of monodisperse microbubbles aimed to clinical applications. The results proved the efficiency of the devices in the generation of microbubbles with the percentage variation rate of 0.4% and average diameter of 73.7 μm.

3D Printed MEMS Technology—Recent Developments and Applications

“…The mask is placed on a photoresist on a silicon wafer, and this photoresist is not exposed to UV light through the open areas of the mask. Depending on the photoresist, either the exposed or the non-exposed areas form the pattern, while the residual photoresist is washed of the wafer, in this way building a master mold [34].…”

“…The waxy support used along the channels had to be dissolved and mechanically removed from the channels after printing. In this way, it was possible to prepare microbubbles of very homogenous dimensions, with a standard deviation below 1% [34,42].…”