Fabrication of circular microfluidic channels through grayscale dual-projection lithography
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- 作者：Ran He ; Doruk Yunus ; Christopher Uhl ; Wentao Shi…
- 关键词：Circular microfluidic channel ; Lithography ; Microfabrication ; Particle analysis
- 刊名：Microfluidics and Nanofluidics
- 出版年：2017
- 出版时间：January 2017
- 年：2017
- 卷：21
- 期：1
- 全文大小：
- 刊物类别：Engineering
- 刊物主题：Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Biomedical Engineering; Analytical Chemistry; Nanotechnology and Microengineering;
- 出版者：Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- ISSN：1613-4990
- 卷排序：21
文摘
Circular microfluidic channels are in great demand since they are more realistic in mimicking physiological flow systems, generating axis-symmetrical flow, and achieving uniform shear stress. A typical microchannel with rectangular cross section can induce non-physiological gradients of shear rate, pressure, and velocity. This paper presents a novel method of fabricating microfluidic channels with circular and elliptical cross sections through grayscale dual-projection lithography. Our method utilizes two projecting systems to expose grayscale image face-to-face and simultaneously polymerize the photocurable material. The cross-sectional profiles of the fabricated microchannels are consistent with mathematical predictions and, therefore, demonstrate the capability of controlling the channel shapes precisely. Customized circular microchannels can be generated with complex features such as junctions, bifurcations, hierarchies, and gradually changed diameters. This method is capable of fabricating circular channels with a wide range of diameters (39 μm–2 mm) as well as elliptical channels with a major-to-minor axis ratio up to 600%. Microfluidic devices with circular cross sections suitable for particle analysis were made as a demonstrative application in nanoparticle binding and distribution within a mimetic blood vessel. A ready-to-use microfluidic device with customized circular channels can be fabricated within 1 h without the need of clean room or expensive photolithography devices.