Do it yourself- circular cross-section microfluidic channel

Abstract

AbstractIn this article, we report the design and fabrication of a ‘do-it-yourself’ microfluidic channel with a circular cross-section, created outside a cleanroom facility. In this approach, the fabrication of the channel do not require any chemical etching or lithography steps, making it safe and suitable for small research groups. The channel is fabricated using the soft-lithography method in polydimethylsiloxane (Sylgard® 184). A copper wire with a diameter of 240 µm is used as a mold, and the channel is created using the wire pull-out method. This work also addresses the optimal use of polydimethylsiloxane in channel fabrication, as well as the challenges faced when connecting the microchannel to the outside world via tubing and techniques to overcome them. All simulations were conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics 6.0. The analytical, simulation, and test results, show a good match.

Keywords

• Channel
• copper wire
• flow rate
• mold
• PDMS
• soft-lithography