High density 3D printed microfluidic valves, pumps, and multiplexers.
High density 3D printed microfluidic valves, pumps, and multiplexers.
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DOI：
10.1039/c6lc00565a
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发表时间：
2016-07-07
期刊：
影响因子：
6.1
通讯作者：
Nordin GP
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gong H;Woolley AT;Nordin GP
In this paper we demonstrate that 3D printing with a Digital Light Processor stereolithographic (DLP-SLA) 3D printer can be used to create high density microfluidic devices with active components such as valves and pumps. Leveraging our previous work on optical formulation of inexpensive resins (RSC Adv. 5, 106621, 2015), we demonstrate valves with only 10% of the volume of our original 3D printed valves (Biomicrofluidics 9, 016501, 2015), which were already the smallest that have been reported. Moreover, we show that inclusion of a thermal initiator in the resin formulation along with a post-print bake can dramatically improve the durability of 3D printed valves up to 1 million actuations. Using two valves and a valve-like displacement chamber (DC), we also create compact 3D printed pumps. With 5-phase actuation and a 15 ms phase interval, we obtain pump flow rates as high as 40 μL/min. We also characterize maximum pump back pressure (i.e., maximum pressure the pump can work against), maximum flow rate (flow rate when there is zero back pressure), and flow rate as a function of the height of the pump outlet. We further demonstrate combining 5 valves and one DC to create a 3-to-2 multiplexer with integrated pump. In addition to serial multiplexing, we also show that the device can operate as a mixer. Importantly, we illustrate the rapid fabrication and test cycles that 3D printing makes possible by implementing a new multiplexer design to improve mixing, and fabricate and test it within one day. In this paper we demonstrate that 3D printing with a Digital Light Processor stereolithographic (DLP-SLA) 3D printer can be used to create high density microfluidic devices with active components such as valves and pumps in a very compact format Valve volume is reduced by a factor of 10, and we demonstrate 1 million valve actuations enabled by adding a thermal initiator to our low-cost, custom resin formulation and a short post-print bake. We show pump flow rates up to 40 microliters/min, and demonstrate a very compact 3-to-2 multiplexer that also functions as a mixer. In addition, we illustrate the rapid redesign-fabrication-test iteration cycle enabled by 3D printing by modifying the multiplexer to improve mixing performance. The turn-around time is just one day to go from the original design to an experimentally tested improved design. The results reported in the paper are a large step forward in demonstrating the promise of 3D printing for microfluidics.
