Low-Cost 3D-Printed PLA-COC Micro Hydrodynamic Focused Device

Abstract

3D-printing has recently attracted the interest of researchers in microfluidics. This technology has proved its potential as a way of fabricating microchannels offering an automated, low-cost, and straight-forward approach compared with the laborious soft-lithography method. 3D-printing enables rapid prototyping. Microfluidic devices can be produced using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), with channels width in the order of hundreds of micrometers. These devices can be used for testing new topologies, geometries, and concepts, before investing in others costlier methods. The study of the flow inside microfluidic devices requires optical access to microchannels. Unfortunately, even transparent materials such as Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) produce translucent 3D prints, that are not optically transparent, because of the layering process in 3D-printing. In this work, we propose a way of creating an optical window by using an open channel approach delimited by Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC). This approach enabled us to monitor liquid flow inside the device using biocompatible materials.