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

这个小型企业创新研究(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的微流控设备的开发。目前，具有高分辨率微通道的设备通常是使用复杂的洁净室微制造设备制造的，需要专业技术、高成本和长时间；这些因素阻碍了它们的使用。该项目将能够以极低的成本和周转时间快速制造定制的微流控设备。这项技术将对基础细胞生物学、药物筛选、细胞治疗、毒性测试和组织工程等应用领域的研究产生影响。这项SBIR第一阶段项目将推进混合激光打印(HLP)的转化，将连续液体界面生产(CLIP)的快速和大规模打印能力与加法多光子聚合(MPP)和减法多光子消融(MPA)的精密处理结合在一台多功能机器中。这项工作将解决材料发现和可伸缩性方面的技术挑战：1)发现不仅与HLP工艺兼容，而且还显示出必要的耐用性、透明度、生物兼容性和对流体的不渗透性的新材料；并表征关键的HLP参数，如在MPA模式下使用的烧蚀z范围和在Clip模式下使用的死区厚度；以及2)使用新颖的多尺度剪裁策略结合步进缝合投影印刷方法来扩大HLP工艺的最大可打印尺寸。该项目将开发生命科学应用的原型。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.