Design and characterisation of microfluidic channels fabricated using additive manufacturing techniques

Abstract

An in-depth investigation on the technical feasibility of developing a range of microfluidic platforms, using a low-cost, LCD-based Stereolithography Apparatus (SLA) 3D printer, is presented. The 3D printed microfluidic platforms are based on a unibody design consisting of open-top tape-capped channels, with either semi-circular or rectangular cross-sectional geometries defined by sub-millimeter dimensions. Microfluidic channel designs for micro-mixer applications were successfully printed with a minimum feature size of 500 µm. The microfluidic platforms were characterised using pressure-flow rate measurements and optical profilometery. Experimental results have been compared to analytical calculations and validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation results. Tolerances in the results were observed due to material deformation such as shrinkage during printing, surface roughness, and 3D printer limitations such as layer height and xy-axis resolution.