Centre for Rural and Regional Futures, Deakin University, Geelong VIC 3220, Australia.
Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong VIC 3220, Australia.
Anal Chem. 2021 Jan 12;93(1):350-366. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04672. Epub 2020 Dec 2.
In the past decade, 3D printing technologies have been adopted for the fabrication of microfluidic devices. Extrusion-based approaches including fused filament fabrication (FFF), jetting technologies including inkjet 3D printing, and vat photopolymerization techniques including stereolithography (SLA) and digital light projection (DLP) are the 3D printing methods most frequently adopted by the microfluidic community. Each printing technique has merits toward the fabrication of microfluidic devices. Inkjet printing offers a good selection of materials and multimaterial printing, and the large build space provides manufacturing throughput, while FFF offers a great selection of materials and multimaterial printing but at lower throughput compared to inkjet 3D printing. Technical and material developments adopted from adjacent research fields and developed by the microfluidic community underpin the printing of sub-100 μm enclosed microchannels by DLP, but challenges remain in multimaterial printing throughput. With the feasibility of 3D printed microfluidics established, we look ahead at trends in 3D printing to gain insights toward the future of this technology beyond the sole prism of being an alternative fabrication approach. A shift in emphasis from using 3D printing for prototyping, to mimic conventionally manufactured outputs, toward integrated approaches from a design perspective is critically developed.
在过去的十年中，3D 打印技术已被用于制造微流控器件。基于挤出的方法，包括熔融沉积成型（FFF）、喷射技术，包括喷墨 3D 打印，以及光聚合技术，包括立体光刻（SLA）和数字光投影（DLP），是微流控领域最常采用的 3D 打印方法。每种打印技术在制造微流控器件方面都有其优点。喷墨打印提供了多种材料和多材料打印的选择，而大的构建空间提供了制造吞吐量，而 FFF 则提供了更多的材料和多材料打印的选择，但与喷墨 3D 打印相比，吞吐量较低。来自相邻研究领域的技术和材料发展，以及微流控领域的发展，为 DLP 打印亚 100μm 封闭微通道提供了支持，但在多材料打印吞吐量方面仍存在挑战。随着 3D 打印微流控的可行性得到确立，我们展望 3D 打印的趋势，从设计的角度深入了解这项技术的未来，而不仅仅是作为一种替代制造方法。从使用 3D 打印进行原型制作，到模仿传统制造输出，向从设计角度出发的集成方法转变，这一点至关重要。
