3D printing: an emerging tool for novel microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip applications

Alireza Ahmadian Yazdi, Adam Popma, William Wong, Tammy Nguyen, Yayue Pan, Jie Xu
2016 Microfluidics and Nanofluidics  
Guo et al. 2015) . Fluid flow at the characteristic dimensions of microfluidic devices (MFDs) exhibits unique behavior not otherwise replicable at macroscopic scales (Karniadakis et al. 2006; Squires and Quake 2005; Hashmi et al. 2012) . Currently, most microfluidic fabrication techniques are largely constrained by the complexity of real 3D structures, and limit researchers' ability to produce complex 3D flow paths with nonstandard cross sections and of differing sizes and directions.
more » ... y, the rapidly advancing 3D printing technology, also known as additive manufacturing (AM) technology, has brought us a possible route to overcome this problem. In this technology, the structure of interest is sliced into numerous 2D cross sections, and hence, the production becomes a straightforward layer-bylayer fabrication process. Such a direct approach for microfabrication is rapidly becoming established as an attractive field of interest to microfluidic engineers. The intent of this article is to introduce the state-of-the-art 3D printing technologies and its applications in fabricating microfluidics for novel experiments. We will focus on emerging applications in the past 2 years and provide our perspectives on possible future directions. 3D microfluidics Complicated 3D microproducts such as medical devices, microoptical systems, and integrated microsensors significantly contribute to the evolution of various fields in MEMS, microfluidics, and lab-on-a-chip technologies. However, fabrication of 3D microstructures with arbitrary Abstract In the past few years, 3D printing technology has witnessed an explosive growth, penetrating various aspects of our lives. Current best-in-class 3D printers can fabricate micrometer scale objects, which has made fabrication of microfluidic devices possible. The highest achievable resolution is already at nanometer scale, which is continuing to drop. Since geometric complexity is not a concern for 3D printing, novel 3D microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip systems that are otherwise impossible to produce with traditional 2D microfabrication technology have started to emerge in recent years. In this review, we first introduce the basics of 3D printing technology for the microfluidic community and then summarize its emerging applications in creating novel microfluidic devices. We foresee widespread utilization of 3D printing for future developments in microfluidic engineering and lab-on-achip technology.
doi:10.1007/s10404-016-1715-4 fatcat:q5gfogi2dzg2djza4wlksmivha