3D Printed Metal Molds for Hot Embossing Plastic Microfluidic Devices

Overview

Journal Lab Chip

Publisher Royal Society of Chemistry

Specialties Biotechnology
Chemistry

Date 2016 Dec 10

PMID 27934978

Citations 16

Authors

Tung-Yi Lin

Truong Do

Patrick Kwon

Peter B Lillehoj

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Plastics are one of the most commonly used materials for fabricating microfluidic devices. While various methods exist for fabricating plastic microdevices, hot embossing offers several unique advantages including high throughput, excellent compatibility with most thermoplastics and low start-up costs. However, hot embossing requires metal or silicon molds that are fabricated using CNC milling or microfabrication techniques which are time consuming, expensive and required skilled technicians. Here, we demonstrate for the first time the fabrication of plastic microchannels using 3D printed metal molds. Through optimization of the powder composition and processing parameters, we were able to generate stainless steel molds with superior material properties (density and surface finish) than previously reported 3D printed metal parts. Molds were used to fabricate poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) replicas which exhibited good feature integrity and replication quality. Microchannels fabricated using these replicas exhibited leak-free operation and comparable flow performance as those fabricated from CNC milled molds. The speed and simplicity of this approach can greatly facilitate the development (i.e. prototyping) and manufacture of plastic microfluidic devices for research and commercial applications.

Citing Articles

Making Healthcare Accessible: A Rapid Clean-Room-Free Fabrication Strategy for Microfluidics-Driven Biosensors Based on Coupling Stereolithography and Hot Embossing.

Lu H, Rakhymzhanov A, Buttner U, Alsulaiman D ACS Omega. 2024; 9(36):38096-38106.

PMID: 39281898 PMC: 11391438. DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.4c05196.

Rapid prototyping of thermoplastic microfluidic devices via SLA 3D printing.

Khoo H, Allen W, Arroyo-Curras N, Hur S Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):17646.

PMID: 39085631 PMC: 11291766. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-68761-5.

Demonstration of a Transparent and Adhesive Sealing Top for Microfluidic Lab-Chip Applications.

Agarwal A, Salahuddin A, Ahamed M Sensors (Basel). 2024; 24(6).

PMID: 38544060 PMC: 10974451. DOI: 10.3390/s24061797.

3D Printing of Individualized Microfluidic Chips with DLP-Based Printer.

Qiu J, Li J, Guo Z, Zhang Y, Nie B, Qi G Materials (Basel). 2023; 16(21).

PMID: 37959581 PMC: 10650121. DOI: 10.3390/ma16216984.

Microfluidic Organ-on-A-chip: A Guide to Biomaterial Choice and Fabrication.

Cao U, Zhang Y, Chen J, Sayson D, Pillai S, Tran S Int J Mol Sci. 2023; 24(4).

PMID: 36834645 PMC: 9966054. DOI: 10.3390/ijms24043232.

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