Transcript
As reported in the journal, Lab Chip, researchers at Brigham Young University recently became the first to 3D print a viable microfluidic device small enough to be effective at a scale of less than 100 micrometers. Microfluidic devices are tiny chips that can sort out disease biomarkers, cells and other small structures in samples like blood by using microscopic channels incorporated into the devices.
This represents a major breakthrough in mass-producing the medical diagnostic devices cheaply. The key to this innovation was two-fold:
- Building a custom 3D printer to print at a much higher resolution than normal.
- Using a new, specifically designed, low-cost, custom resin.
The resin is light-sensitive; responding to a specific color of light. A digital light processing chip of the type used in commercial projectors is used to create a pattern of this light on the surface where the printing is done. The resin hardens at precisely the right places in response to this light pattern.
This research is laying the foundation for 3D printing to challenge the dominance of conventional methods like soft lithography and hot embossing, in microfluidic prototyping and development.
The results represent an improvement of a factor of 100 on the size of features that are now possible in 3D printed microfluidics. The BYU-authored approach is also faster, creating a device in thirty minutes' time without the need to use "clean rooms."
Therefore, it represents a huge leap toward a previously inaccessible "size regime" for 3D printing, it also opens up a lot of doors for making microfluidic devices more easily and inexpensively.
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