In the development of microfluidic systems, conventional 2D processing technologies are increasingly difficult to meet the requirement of integration of multifunctional components within a microchannel. Recently, two-photon polymerization (TPP) technology has emerged as a novel alternative to fabricate 3D microdevices functionalizing conventional microfluidic chips. Here, the development of TPP microfluidic technology comprising parallel fabrication, holographic patterning method and real-time lithography in a controlled flow is reported. And a series of functional microcomponents containing microfilters, microsorters, microtrap, tunable microlens are fabricated by above methods. The results indicate that the processing of microfluidic devices is simple, timesaving, low cost and programmable designability. The functional microchips are further used in blood cells sorting, biomedical sensing, microparticle purification and trapping with successful test results.
For microseparation devices, the quality of the microholes, e.g., smooth surfaces and edges, is of crucial importance for high-performance separating ability. Here, we used water-assisted femtosecond laser perforating technology to fabricate high-quality size-controllable (from several to tens of micrometers) micropore arrays on ultrathin aluminum foil surface, which have smooth edges without fragments and debris. The micropore arrays can effectively filtrate particles with diverse diameters. Compared to the micropores prepared in air under the same laser processing parameters, the water-assisted micropores have greatly improved the surface quality, and the particle separation ratio can be increased by ∼40 % . This method for preparing high-quality micropore arrays can also be applied to other sheet materials, such as titanium, silicon, and even plastic, and so on, which can be widely used in the fields of microfluidic devices for microseparation.
The shape of manufactured microtubes is one of the most important properties in their numerous emerging applications areas, like drug delivery, microfluidics, and cell biology. However, making non-cylindrical microtubes with 3D features in a reproducible and single-step fashion, and meanwhile, with the ability of remote control has remained challenging. In this study, we demonstrate the controlled synthesis of highly curved 3D microtubes by two-photon polymerization with single exposure of structured optical vortices, which is generated by phase modulation with a liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM). We exploit the tight focusing property of the optical vortices along the light path to create 3D microtubes. By modulating the topological charge and symmetry of the optical vortices, the size and geometry of fabricated microtubes can be well controlled. Finally, we combine these two ideas with the use of magnetic nanoparticles doped resist to fabricate 3D microtubes with elaborate features and remote controllability. Precise rotation and motion of the microtubes are realized by external magnetic field. With the fabricated functional mocrotubes, elaborate capture, delivery, and realease of microparticles are demonstrated. The technology we introduce is simple, stable and achieves a high production rate to make a wide variety of functional 3D microtubes, which have broad applications in cargo transportation, drug delivery, biosensing, microfluidics, and targeted cell therapy.
Recently, annular beams have been developed to rapidly fabricate microscope tubular structures via two-photon polymerization, but the distribution of the light field is limited to a ring pattern. Here a Fresnel lens is designed and applied to modulate the light field into a uniform quadrangle or hexagon shape with controllable diameters. By applying a spatial light modulator to load the phase information of the Fresnel lens, quadrangle and hexagon structures are achieved through single exposure of a femtosecond laser. A 3×6 array of structures is made within 9 s. Comparing with the conventional holographic processing, this method shows higher uniformity, high efficiency, better flexibility, and easy operation. The approach exhibited a promising prospect in rapidly fabricating structures such as tissue engineering scaffolds and variously shaped tubular arrays.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.