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Researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah, USA, are creating the world's smallest and most detailed 3D printed microfluidic systems. The scientists managed to achieve the required accuracy using a 3D printer of their own design.
Microfluidic systems play the role of “laboratories on a chip” and are widely used in medical diagnostics to search for biomarkers that indicate early stages of disease or disorder. In particular, one of the project participants, Professor Wooley, is looking for ways to early diagnose pathologies that cause premature birth. Additive technologies have been used in the production of customized microfluidic systems for several years, but the resolution leaves much to be desired: according to the project participants, no one has yet been able to print channels less than 100 microns in diameter.
Scientists set about creating a special 3D printer that prints with photopolymer resins. Illumination is carried out by a DLP projector, and specially synthesized photopolymers are used as consumables, optimized for curing with UV radiation at 385 nm, which "significantly expands the selection of available absorbers compared to 3D printers operating at 405 nm."
The ultra-high resolution of the apparatus with a spot diameter of about 7.6 microns allows printing channels with a diameter of 18 microns, and the detailing of the resulting microfluidic systems as a whole increases almost a hundredfold. In one of the experiments, the developers managed to print the flow channels with a length of 41 mm, which fit into a volume of no more than 0.12 mm³.
