Direct Ink Writing 3D Printing for Fabricating Ultra-deformable Microfluidic Electronic Devices
Michinao Hashimoto,
Associate Professor, Singapore University of Technology and Design,
Three-dimensional (3D) printing has become the new standard to fabricate microfluidic devices. Stereolithography (SL) printing has been increasingly used to fabricate fluidic channels, but the fabricated devices are restricted by attainable channel dimensions and properties of photoresins. Integration of channels with electronic components is also difficult due to the mechanism of SL printing. In this work, we present direct ink writing (DIW) 3D printing as an alternative route to fabricating microchannels. DIW 3D printing allows extrusion-based patterning of silicone-based elastomeric materials (e.g., room-temperature-vulcanizing (RTV) silicone and addition-curing two-part silicone) on unique substrates such as elastomeric sheets integrated with electronic components (e.g., light-emitting diode chips and near field communication (NFC) tags) to enhance the functionality of the device. To highlight the advantage of DIW-based fabrication of microchannels, an ultra-deformable film-based microfluidic device with embedded liquid metals is fabricated to demonstrate the device conformability that addresses mechanical mismatch at the tissue-device interface. Overall, DIW 3D printing offers unique opportunities for the fabrication of microfluidic devices with advanced functions and will be beneficial for the development of flexible sensors and actuators.
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