Graduate students Monsur Islam and Rucha Natu with Professor Rodrigo Martinez-Duarte of the Multiscale Manufacturing Laboratory, published a study on the limitations of using a relatively inexpensive commercial cutter plotter in the development of microfluidic devices. Xurography, or the use of a blade to pattern a film, has been used to fabricate devices out of double-sided adhesive. Different geometries were characterized to provide practical guidelines for the manufacture of common microfluidic devices. The work, published in the journal Microfluidics & Nanofluidics, has been applied to fabricate robust gradient generators and channels used in particle separation using carbon micro electrodes. The manufacturing technique provides a lower cost and more rapid alternative to soft lithography as long as the dimensions of the geometries to be patterned remain above 200 um.
For more details please consult http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10404-015-1626-9
M. Islam, R. Natu and R. Martinez-Duarte, “A study on the limits and advantages of using desktop cutter plotter to fabricate microfluidic networks” Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, DOI: 10.1007/s10404-015-1626-9 (2015).
