Digital light processing 3D printing for microfluidic chips with enhanced resolution via dosing-and zoning-controlled vat photopolymerization  

作　　者：Zhiming Luo Haoyue Zhang Runze Chen Hanting Li Fang Cheng Lijun Zhang Jia Liu Tiantian Kong Yang Zhang Huanan Wang 

机构地区：[1]School of Biomedical Engineering,Shenzhen University Health Science Center,Shenzhen 518000,P.R.China [2]State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals,Frontiers Science Center for Smart Materials Oriented Chemical Engineering,School of Bioengineering,Dalian University of Technology,Dalian 116024,P.R.China [3]Third People’s Hospital of Dalian,Dalian Eye Hospital,Dalian 116024 P.R.China [4]Central Laboratory,The Second Affiliated Hospital of The,Chinese University of Hong Kong,Shenzhen 518172,P.R.China

出　　处：《Microsystems & Nanoengineering》2023年第4期315-327,共13页微系统与纳米工程（英文）

基　　金：This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2018YFA0703000),the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.31870957),the Fundamental Research Fundamental Funds for the Central Universities(DUT22LAB601),Guangdong Provincial Basic and Applied Basic Research(No.2019A1515110415),and the Shenzhen Basic Research Program general project(JCYJ20190808152211686 and JCYJ20190808120217133).

摘　　要：Conventional manufacturing techniques to fabricate microfluidic chips,such as soft lithography and hot embossing process,have limitations that include difficulty in preparing multiple-layered structures,cost-and labor-consuming fabrication process,and low productivity.Digital light processing(DLP)technology has recently emerged as a costefficient microfabrication approach for the 3D printing of microfluidic chips;however,the fabrication resolution for microchannels is still limited to sub-100 microns at best.Here,we developed an innovative DLP printing strategy for high resolution and scalable microchannel fabrication by dosing-and zoning-controlled vat photopolymerization(DZC-VPP).Specifically,we proposed a modified mathematical model to precisely predict the accumulated UV irradiance for resin photopolymerization,thereby providing guidance for the fabrication of microchannels with enhanced resolution.By fine-tuning the printing parameters,including optical irradiance,exposure time,projection region,and step distance,we can precisely tailor the penetration irradiance stemming from the photopolymerization of the neighboring resin layers,thereby preventing channel blockage due to UV overexposure or compromised bonding stability owing to insufficient resin curing.Remarkably,this strategy can allow the preparation of microchannels with cross-sectional dimensions of 20μm×20μm using a commercial printer with a pixel size of 10μm×10μm;this is significantly higher resolution than previous reports.In addition,this method can enable the scalable and biocompatible fabrication of microfluidic drop-maker units that can be used for cell encapsulation.In general,the current DZC-VPP method can enable major advances in precise and scalable microchannel fabrication and represents a significant step forward for widespread applications of microfluidics-based techniques in biomedical fields.

关 键 词：PRINTING RESOLUTION RESIN 

分 类 号：TB383[一般工业技术—材料科学与工程]