Typography-Like 3D-Printed Templates for the Lithography-Free Fabrication of Microfluidic Chips. (February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Su, Wenqiong; Li, Yulong; Zhang, Lulu; Sun, Jiahui; Liu, Shuopeng; Ding, Xianting
• Is Part Of: SLAS technology. Volume 25:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 82
• Page End: 87
• Publication Date: 2020-02
• Subjects: typography-like -- lithography-free -- 3D printing -- microfluidic chip -- drug screening; Medical laboratory technology -- Periodicals; Laboratories -- Equipment and supplies -- Periodicals; Diagnosis, Laboratory -- Periodicals; 616.075
• DOI: 10.1177/2472630319867903
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2472-6303

Abstract

Typography-like templates for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chips using a fused deposition modeling (FDM) three-dimensional (3D) printer are presented. This rapid and fast proposed scheme did not require complicated photolithographic fabrication facilities and could deliver resolutions of ~100 μm. Polylactic acid (PLA) was adopted as the material to generate the 3D-printed units, which were then carefully assembled on a glass substrate using a heat-melt-curd strategy. This craft of bonding offers a cost-effective way to design and modify the templates of microfluidic channels, thus reducing the processing time of microfluidic chips. Finally, a flexible microfluidic chip to be employed for cell-based drug screening was developed based on the modularized 3D-printed templates. The lithography-free, typography-like, 3D-printed templates create a modularized fabrication process and promote the prevalence of integrated microfluidic systems with minimal requirements and improved efficiency.