Print-Aware Synthesis and Physical Design Methodologies for 3D-Printed Microfluidic Biochips

Key point Tiny chips that route small amounts of liquid are used in diagnostics, chemical synthesis and biological analysis.

Microfluidic devices are widely used in diagnostics, chemical synthesis, and biological analysis, but their development often depends on complex fabrication and design processes.

Key point Cheap resin 3D printing could replace cleanroom fabrication, but the design work stays manual and expertise-heavy.

However, the practical realization of 3D-printed microfluidic biochips remains challenging due to manual and expertise-intensive design workflows, the rigid nature of commonly used printing materials, and fabrication inaccuracies such as over-curing that distort internal features and may block narrow channels.

Key point Stray light over-cures the resin trapped inside the channels, distorting features and sometimes blocking them.

However, the practical realization of 3D-printed microfluidic biochips remains challenging due to manual and expertise-intensive design workflows, the rigid nature of commonly used printing materials, and fabrication inaccuracies such as over-curing that distort internal features and may block narrow channels.

Key point A design automation framework turns a high-level schematic into a printable multi-layer device.

In this paper, we present a cohesive design automation framework for 3D-printed microfluidics that addresses these challenges across both device design and fabrication.

Key point Mixers hit a target recipe by splitting the ratio into a branching tree fed by one constant pressure source.

-MM synthesizes passive 3D-printed mixers that hit user-defined multi-reagent ratio vectors under a single constant pressure source, by deterministically decomposing the target ratio into additive sub-ratios mapped to a hierarchical mix-flow tree (leaves = inlet branches, internal nodes = mixing junctions, root = outlet).

Key point The framework spans design and fabrication, improving print fidelity on low-cost resin printers.

The framework combines interactive design tools, automated synthesis methods for functional 3D microfluidic devices, techniques for developing low-cost 3D-printed mixers, and design-for-manufacturing strategies to improve print fidelity on low-cost resin printers.