Method Article
Microfluidic device design, fabrication, and testing protocols
https://doi.org/10.1038/protex.2015.069
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This protocols document describes the design considerations and software tools to design a microfluidic device, fabrication protocols for making master molds and the final polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device, and testing of the completed microfluidic device.
Microfluidic devices are often used to perform biological assays. They have been used for functions that include to trap1, deform2 and sort3 cells. To make these tools we use fabrication processes adopted from the integrated circuit manufacturing industry to first make a master mold and using this master mold we make a complete device.4 The procedure to fabricate a master and corresponding microfluidic device is shown by the schematics in Figure 1 (See attachment "Protocols document").
The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines for first time users. This will help the reader understand what is needed to take an idea for a device through the design and fabrication process to make a complete device for testing. Section 1 presents microfluidic device design using AutoCAD. Section 2 describes the master fabrication steps (Figure 1.1-1.3). Section 3 provides the procedure to use polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to fabricate the finalized microfluidic device (Figure 1.4-1.5). Section 4 discusses the methods used to test the devices.
See attachment "Protocols document."
Master fabrication: 3-4 hours excluding device characterization
Device fabrication: 1-2 hours excluding 4 hour bake step
Tanyeri, M., Ranka, M., Sittipolkul, N. & Schroeder, C. M. A microfluidic-based hydrodynamic trap: design and implementation. Lab Chip 11, 1786–1794 (2011).
Hoelzle, D. J., Varghese, B. A., Chan, C. K. & Rowat, A. C. A Microfluidic Technique to Probe Cell Deformability. Journal of Visualized Experiments (2014). doi:10.3791/51474
Agresti, J. J. et al. Ultrahigh-throughput screening in drop-based microfluidics for directed evolution. PNAS 107, 4004–4009 (2010).
Qi, D., Hoelzle, D. J. & Rowat, A. C. Probing single cells using flow in microfluidic devices. The European Physical Journal Special Topics 204, 85–101 (2012).
AutoCAD tip - line, spline or polyline? at http://cadsmarter.com/autocad-tip-line-spline-polyline/
Kosar, F. Introduction to Microfluidics and Microfluidic Devices Lecture 3. (2014).
Designing Your Own Device: Basic Design Rules. Stanford Microfluidics Foundry at http://web.stanford.edu/group/foundry/Basic%20Design%20Rules.html
SU-8 photolithography: photomask – Elveflow. at http://www.elveflow.com/microfluidic-tutorials/soft-lithography-reviews-and-tutorials/how-to-choose-your-soft-lithography-instruments/su-8-photolithography-photomask/
Fineline Imaging - Precision Laser Photoplots. at http://www.fineline-imaging.com/
Compugraphics: Global photomask solutions. at http://www.compugraphics-photomasks.com/
Microchemicals. SU-8 3000 Permanent Epoxy Negative Photoresist. at www.microchem.com
This work was funded in part by the National Science Foundation grant CBET 1403887, Notre Dame Start-up funds, Notre Dame Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics initiative and Notre Dame Harper Cancer Research Institute seed funding. Resource support was provided by the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility and the Notre Dame Nanofabrication Facility. We would like to thank the NDNF staff for equipment training and troubleshooting. K. C. would like to thank CBE 41910 instructor Basar Bilgicer Ph.D. for providing initial instruction in microfluidics and for helpful pertinent discussions following the course.
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Protocols document Microfluidic device design, fabrication, and testing protocols
This protocol has been posted on Protocol Exchange, an open repository of community-contributed protocols sponsored by Nature Portfolio. These protocols are posted directly on the Protocol Exchange by authors and are made freely available to the scientific community for use and comment.
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