I cannot find a serious technical drawing of any microfluidic device, which could specify the design requirements for manufacturer. I would appreciate if someone, who is skilled in this art, could brief me on the items (or link me on a relevant paper):
1) What is the required width, depth and shape of the channel?
2) What are the required values of surface roughness parameters?
3) what are the requirements for holes and channels accuracy (tollerance for cylindrycity, uniformity, edge radiuos, etc.)?
4) What are the trend for design? The smaller the better? What are the limits?
5) Which problems exist in nowadays manufacturing of microfluidics?
Regards.
As all the microfluidics devices are not commercial and universal, I don't see it practically possible. If you want details of specific device, you can contact the authors for any particular design you want to use (ofcourse fixing all the permissions), or better to make your design yourself. In this way you will be having full information and control of your design/device.
As stated by Abhijeet Singh , the lack of universality is a problem when trying to provide design requirements. The design and design requirements of a mircofluidic device are highly dependent on the specific application and the chosen fabrication method. Coupling this to the fact that the field is incredibly broad it is (in my opinion) very difficult to give an overview of design requirements beyond very basic statements about laminar flow or the Reynolds number. If you are interested in learning more about microfluidics i would recommend the book "Theoretical Microfluidics" by Henrik Bruus.
As for commercial manufacturers I am only familiar with Mircronit who have started to create standard connectors and components for specific applications.
Now I see the case. Thanks for the literature and industry link.
Regards.
Shape of the channel highly depends on the fabrication method. Most of the microfluidics designed for bio/chemical applications are somehow 2.5 D rather than 3-D. If microfabrication is used, then depending on the etch technique, circular, rectangular, trapezoidal, or triangular cross sections can be obtained. Fabrication using PDMS allows more flexibility for the geometry besides that it is much cheaper. However, for the main mold, usually microfabrication is used.
One cheap technique is the "Xurography".
- Badges
- Science topic