Suspended liquid subtractive lithography: printing three dimensional channels directly into uncured PDMS

D. Helmer; A. Voigt; S. Wagner; N. Keller; K. Sachsenheimer; F. Kotz; T. M. Nargang; B. E. Rapp

doi:10.1117/12.2290601

19 February 2018 Suspended liquid subtractive lithography: printing three dimensional channels directly into uncured PDMS

D. Helmer, A. Voigt, S. Wagner, N. Keller, K. Sachsenheimer, F. Kotz, T. M. Nargang, B. E. Rapp

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10491, Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems XVI; 104910I (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2290601
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2018, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is one of the most widely used polymers for the generation of microfluidic chips. The standard procedures of soft lithography require the formation of a new master structure for every design which is timeconsuming and expensive. All channel generated by soft lithography need to be consecutively sealed by bonding which is a process that can proof to be hard to control. Channel cross-sections are largely restricted to squares or flat-topped designs and the generation of truly three-dimensional designs is not straightforward. Here we present Suspended Liquid Subtractive Lithography (SLSL) a method for generating microfluidic channels of nearly arbitrary three-dimensional structures in PDMS that do not require master formation or bonding and give circular channel cross sections which are especially interesting for mimicking in vivo environments. In SLSL, an immiscible liquid is introduced into the uncured PDMS by a capillary mounted on a 3D printer head. The liquid forms continuous “threads” inside the matrix thus creating void suspended channel structures.

Citation Download Citation

D. Helmer, A. Voigt, S. Wagner, N. Keller, K. Sachsenheimer, F. Kotz, T. M. Nargang, and B. E. Rapp "Suspended liquid subtractive lithography: printing three dimensional channels directly into uncured PDMS", Proc. SPIE 10491, Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems XVI, 104910I (19 February 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2290601

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