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. 2023 Jun 23;14(7):1286.
doi: 10.3390/mi14071286.

3D-Printed Microfluidic One-Way Valves and Pumps

Hunter Hinnen  1 , Matthew Viglione  1 , Troy R Munro  2 , Adam T Woolley  3 , Gregory P Nordin  1
Affiliations

3D-Printed Microfluidic One-Way Valves and Pumps

Hunter Hinnen et al. Micromachines (Basel). .

Abstract

New microfluidic lab-on-a-chip capabilities are enabled by broadening the toolkit of devices that can be created using microfabrication processes. For example, complex geometries made possible by 3D printing can be used to approach microfluidic design and application in new or enhanced ways. In this paper, we demonstrate three distinct designs for microfluidic one-way (check) valves that can be fabricated using digital light processing stereolithography (DLP-SLA) with a poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) resin, each with an internal volume of 5-10 nL. By mapping flow rate to pressure in both the forward and reverse directions, we compare the different designs and their operating characteristics. We also demonstrate pumps for each one-way valve design comprised of two one-way valves with a membrane valve displacement chamber between them. An advantage of such pumps is that they require a single pneumatic input instead of three as for conventional 3D-printed pumps. We also characterize the achievable flow rate as a function of the pneumatic control signal period. We show that such pumps can be used to create a single-stage diffusion mixer with significantly reduced pneumatic drive complexity.

Keywords: 3D printing; microfluidic mixer; microfluidic pump; microfluidics; one-way valve.

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Conflict of interest statement

Two of the authors (G.P.N. and A.T.W.) owns shares in Acrea 3D, a company commercializing microfluidic 3D printing.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Membrane (left), squeeze (center), and ribbon (right). One-way valve CAD designs (top) with membranes emphasized in red (middle) and microscope images of corresponding 3D-printed components (bottom).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Measured average pressure and flow rate relationships for (A) membrane, (B) squeeze, and (C) ribbon one-way valves with corresponding CAD illustrations of membrane deflection based on flow direction. Blue arrows indicate fluid flow direction with corresponding membrane deflection denoted in red. Red “X” denotes reduced flow for reverse flow case. Positive flow rate is forward flow, and negative flow rate is reverse flow. Data in blue depict measuring pressure as a function of flow rate. Data in red entail measuring flow rate as a function of pressure. Data points are an average of 7 valves for each type, and error bars denote ±1 standard deviation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Measured average pressure and flow rate relationships for (A) membrane, (B) squeeze, and (C) ribbon one-way valves with corresponding CAD illustrations of membrane deflection based on flow direction. Blue arrows indicate fluid flow direction with corresponding membrane deflection denoted in red. Red “X” denotes reduced flow for reverse flow case. Positive flow rate is forward flow, and negative flow rate is reverse flow. Data in blue depict measuring pressure as a function of flow rate. Data in red entail measuring flow rate as a function of pressure. Data points are an average of 7 valves for each type, and error bars denote ±1 standard deviation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pump timing logic and top-view microscope images for (top) conventional membrane valve pump and (bottom) single pneumatic control pump based on one-way valves. Red: actuated (pressure applied; valve closed). Green: not actuated (atmospheric pressure or vacuum applied; valve open). Black scale bar in images is 150 µm. Upper right image adapted from Ref. [21] with permission from The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Figure 4
Figure 4
CAD model (top) and microscope photograph (bottom) of single pneumatic input pump designs using each type of one-way valve. Scale bars are 200 µm.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Displaced volume per actuation of the displacement chamber (A,C,E) and flow rate (B,D,F) for each pump design as a function of phase interval. (A,C,E) Average of 7 to 13 pump cycles required to fill a serpentine channel of known volume for each pump type, with error bars denoting ±1 standard deviation in the net volume per pump cycle.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Single-stage 1:1 diffusion mixer using ribbon one-way valves. (A) Perspective view, (B) top view, and (C) micrograph of fabricated device with green and red dye to illustrate the two input fluid paths.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Measured relative concentration for a ribbon valve diffusion mixer. See text for details.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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