Bhargava Krisna C, Thompson Bryant, Iqbal Danish, Malmstadt Noah
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089.
Sci Rep. 2015 Oct 30;5:15609. doi: 10.1038/srep15609.
Microfluidic devices can be used to execute a variety of continuous flow analytical and synthetic chemistry protocols with a great degree of precision. The growing availability of additive manufacturing has enabled the design of microfluidic devices with new functionality and complexity. However, these devices are prone to larger manufacturing variation than is typical of those made with micromachining or soft lithography. In this report, we demonstrate a design-for-manufacturing workflow that addresses performance variation at the microfluidic element and circuit level, in context of mass-manufacturing and additive manufacturing. Our approach relies on discrete microfluidic elements that are characterized by their terminal hydraulic resistance and associated tolerance. Network analysis is employed to construct simple analytical design rules for model microfluidic circuits. Monte Carlo analysis is employed at both the individual element and circuit level to establish expected performance metrics for several specific circuit configurations. A protocol based on osmometry is used to experimentally probe mixing behavior in circuits in order to validate these approaches. The overall workflow is applied to two application circuits with immediate use at on the bench-top: series and parallel mixing circuits that are modularly programmable, virtually predictable, highly precise, and operable by hand.
微流控装置可用于高精度地执行各种连续流动分析和合成化学实验方案。增材制造技术的日益普及使得能够设计出具有新功能和更高复杂性的微流控装置。然而，与通过微加工或软光刻制造的典型装置相比，这些装置更容易出现较大的制造差异。在本报告中，我们展示了一种面向制造的工作流程，该流程在大规模制造和增材制造的背景下，解决了微流控元件和电路层面的性能差异问题。我们的方法依赖于离散的微流控元件，这些元件通过其终端水力阻力和相关公差来表征。采用网络分析为模型微流控电路构建简单的分析设计规则。在单个元件和电路层面都采用蒙特卡洛分析来确定几种特定电路配置的预期性能指标。基于渗透压测定的实验方案用于通过实验探究电路中的混合行为，以验证这些方法。整个工作流程应用于两个可立即在台式设备上使用的应用电路：串联和并联混合电路，它们具有模块化可编程、虚拟可预测、高精度且可手动操作的特点。
