Towards personalized microfluidics: 3D printing of high-performance micropumps by control and optimization of fabrication-induced surface roughness

Additive fabrication technologies are very attractive for use in the realization of customized medical diagnostic and point-of-care devices in the rapidly growing field of personalized healthcare. However, non-idealities in additive manufacturing processes, such as the enhanced roughness that is inherent to many such processes, limit the use of these fabrication technologies in real products. In this work, the effect of additive fabrication-induced surface roughness on fluid flow within material extrusion (MEX) 3D-printed microfluidic devices is modeled and experimentally validated. An optimization process to eliminate such effects in functional 3D-printed devices is developed. By the resulting careful model-driven optimization, high-performance printed glass and Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) valveless micropumps are demonstrated in this work for the first time. Water flow rates of 210 µl min⁻¹ and 140 µl min⁻¹ for the ABS and the glass micropumps respectively, and a maximum working backpressure of 978 Pa at an actuation signal of 68 Hz and 120 V_pp are achieved, attesting to the viability of additive fabrication to realize functional microfluidic devices.