SBIR Phase I: Fast and scalable printing of high-resolution microfluidic devices using HLP technology.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是推动生命科学研究微流体装置的发展。目前，具有高分辨率微通道的设备通常使用复杂的洁净室微加工设备制造，需要专业技术，成本高，周转时间长；这些因素抑制了它们的使用。该项目将使定制微流体设备的快速制造具有较低的成本和周转时间。这项技术将影响包括基础细胞生物学、药物筛选、细胞治疗、毒性测试和组织工程在内的应用研究。SBIR一期项目将推进混合激光打印（HLP）的发展，将连续液界面生产（CLIP）的快速大规模打印能力与增材多光子聚合（MPP）和减法多光子消融（MPA）的精密加工结合到一台多功能机器中。本工作将解决材料发现和可扩展性方面的技术挑战：1)发现不仅与HLP工艺兼容，而且具有必要的耐久性、透明度、生物相容性和不透水性的新材料；并对关键HLP参数进行了表征，如MPA模式下的烧蚀z范围和CLIP模式下的死区厚度；2)采用新颖的多尺度CLIP策略结合步进式投影打印方法，对HLP工艺的最大可打印尺寸进行缩放。该项目将开发生命科学应用的原型。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broadder impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to advance the development of microfluidic devices for life sciences research. Currently, devices with high-resolution microchannels are typically manufactured using sophisticated cleanroom microfabrication facilities, requiring technical expertise, high costs, and long turnaround times; these factors inhibit their use. This project will enable rapid manufacturing of customized microfluidics devices with substantially lower costs and turnaround times. This technology will impact research in applications including fundamental cell biology, drug screening, cellular therapy, toxicity testing, and tissue engineering.This SBIR Phase I project will advance the translation of hybrid laser printing (HLP), combining the quick and large-scale printing capability of Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) with precision processing of additive multiphoton polymerization (MPP) and subtractive multiphoton ablation (MPA) into a single versatile machine. Technical challenges in material discovery and scalability will be addressed in this work: 1) Discover new materials not only compatible with HLP process but also showing the necessary durability, transparency, biocompatibility, and impermeability to fluids; and characterize key HLP parameters, such as ablation z-range used in MPA mode and dead-zone thickness used in CLIP mode; and 2) Scale the maximum printable size of HLP process using a novel multiscale CLIP strategy combined with a step-stitch projection printing method. The project will develop a prototype for life sciences applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.