Novel Design of Additively Manufactured Micromixer in a Microchannel Comprising Mounting and Sealing Elements

Abstract

An additively manufactured three-dimensional mixing element (3DME) integrated in a microchannel is presented. The 3DME increases the interfacial contact-surface by swapping the positions of the incoming streaming liquids. The novel design incorporates important design alterations to a prior prototype. These alterations significantly improve the integration of microelements written by two-photon polymerization (2pp) into photolithographically defined microchannels. Anchor-structures for increased strength as well as a roof to compensate for height-discrepancies between the lithographically defined microchannel and the 2pp-written 3DME are addressed. These allow for a better positioning as well as an increased sealing reliability between the top of the 3DME and a PDMS-lid which in our case is used to close the microchannel.

Keywords

• micromixer
• swap mixer
• two-photon-polymerization
• additive manufacturing