SBIR Phase II: Innovative Platform Technology for Rapid Three Dimensional Fabrication of Capillary Electrophoresis Chips: Phase II Proposal

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is in developing a novel method of manufacturing micro sized parts in three-dimensions without layers at high volume. With no parting lines, the technology represents a significant advancement over current state of the art molding and 3D technologies for certain applications. As this represents an entirely new field of research, not merely an extension of solid freeform fabrication (SFF) techniques, it opens and enables wide research areas in engineering and chemical disciplines. More imminent is using the technology to create capillary electrophoresis (CE) chips that vastly reduce the amount of reagents, provide previously unattainable properties, and at a significantly lower price. By doing so, the technology will accelerate and broaden the adoption of microfluidics which are currently used in applications such as forensics, genomics, drug making, drug analysis, clinical diagnostics, biosensors, and environmental testing, among countless others. This project automates and expands a novel platform technology to manufacture high resolution micro parts. The technology is focused on a unique and inexpensive method to fabricate microfluidic channels and wells, which form the basis of all microfluidic chips. The objectives for Phase II are to: 1) Expand the versatility of the system by inclusion to the platform system of fiber optic cables, temperature control capillaries, microfluidic design of static mixer and expansion of molding materials, 2) Design and construct a pilot automation system to increase control and reduce variability, 3) Test the automation system, 4) Test chips produced via the automated system and test additional versatility components from (1), and 5) Continue to commercialize the products. The technological outcome is an automated system with expanded versatility that will center on the construction of capillary electrophoresis chips, with the objective of making the system on that can manufacture a wide variety of microfluidic chips.