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Digital modelling and additive manufacturing of microfluidic devices for biomedical applications
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| 51.22 MB | Adobe PDF |
Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
Microfluidics is a rapidly growing field that deals with fluid flow at the microscale. Microfluidic devices perform operations such as cell capture, detection and sorting, and chemical reactions, supporting biomedical applications like virus detection for biodefense. Conventional methods to fabricate these devices are often costly, time-consuming, and require specialized equipment. Moreover, it is difficult to create complex three-dimensional structures. Additive manufacturing, or 3D Printing, is revolutionizing many fields. Affordable 3D printers with resolutions of tens of micrometers are now commercially available. Many thermoplastics used in FDM, and more recently resins in DLP/LCD printers, are biocompatible and optically transparent. These developments enable a convergence between 3D Printing and microfluidics, offering a more accessible, personalized and rapid alternative to conventional methods. This master’s thesis began with the aim of printing a specific microfluidic device (MFD) for a PhD student in the biology department of University of Eastern Finland, using a low-cost LCD 3D printer with an advertised resolution of 22 µm. During the course of the work, this demand ceased to exist, so the initial goal shifted toward a broader exploration of the practical limits of FDM and LCD 3D printers, developing a protocol to fabricate MFDs. The advertised resolution of DLP/LCD 3D printers is not fully achieved due to radiation scattering. Thus, the developed methods relied on a set of 3D test prints (3DTPs) and optimization of the slicing software parameters to evaluate practical resolution and printer capability. After characterization and analysis of these 3DTPs, MFDs were fabricated with channels approximately 200 µm high using a biocompatible resin, in few hours, at a low cost. Finally, the thesis introduces a MFD prototype with axial symmetry and channels in multiple orientations, highlighting the unique capabilities of 3D printing in microfluidics.
Descrição
Tese de Mestrado, Engenharia Física, 2025, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências
Palavras-chave
Microfluidics Microfluidic Devices Additive Manufacturing 3D Printing Direct Printing