Abstract
This paper presents in situ fabrication of polymeric machine elements operated by hydrodynamic forcing. With a single-step production, rotary polymer microgears are installed in microfluidic channels via UV-induced polymerization. First, a single microgear is formed, and its rotational performance is characterized as a function of the flow rate of a polymer solution. Then, the rotation of multiple microgears in a single microchannel is demonstrated, where all of the gears are driven by a single fluid flow stream. Finally, paired microgears are fabricated, and the gears show the ability to transmit torque. This ability may be integrated to build polymer microelectromechanical systems that are useful for biomedical applications.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahn CH, Allen MG (1995) Fluid micropumps based on rotary magnetic actuators. Proc IEEE MEMS 1995:408–412
Attia R, Pregibon DC, Doyle PS, Viovy J-L, Bartolo D (2007) Soft microflow sensors. Proc MicroTAS 2007:1146–1148
Attia R, Pregibon DC, Doyle PS, Viovy J-L, Bartolo D (2009) Soft microflow sensors. Lab Chip 9(9):1213–1218
Bustillo JM, Howe RT, Muller RS (1998) Surface micromachining for microelectromechanical systems. Proc IEEE 86(8):1552–1574
Chang WC, Sretavan DW (2007) Microtechnology in medicine: the emergence of surgical microdevices. Clin Neurosurg 54:137–147
Chung SE, Kim J, Choi S-E, Kim LN, Kwon S (2011) In situ fabrication and actuation of polymer magnetic microstructures. J Microelectromech Syst 20(4):785–787
Dendukuri D, Pregibon DC, Collins J, Hatton TA, Doyle PS (2006) Continuous-flow lithography for high-throughput microparticle synthesis. Nat Mater 5(5):365–369
Dendukuri D, Gu SS, Pregibon DC, Hatton TA, Doyle PS (2007) Stop-flow lithography in a microfluidic device. Lab Chip 7(7):818–828
Dendukuri D, Panda P, Haghgooie R, Kim JM, Hatton TA, Doyle PS (2008) Modeling of oxygen-inhibited free radical photopolymerization in a PDMS microfluidic device. Macromolecules 41(22):8547–8556
Garcia EJ, Sniegowski JJ (1995) Surface micromachined microengine. Sens Actuators A 48(3):203–214
Ghalichechian N, Modafe A, Beyaz MI, Ghodssi R (2008) Design, fabrication, and characterization of a rotary micromotor supported on microball bearings. J Microelectromech Syst 17(3):632–642
Grayson ACR, Shawgo RS, Johnson AM, Flynn NT, Yawen LI, Cima MJ, Langer R (2004) A BioMEMS review: MEMS technology for physiologically integrated devices. Proc IEEE 92(1):6–21
Hiratsuka Y, Miyata M, Tada T, Uyeda TQP (2006) A microrotary motor powered by bacteria. Proc Natl Acad Sci 103(37):13618–13623
Ho C-M, Tai Y-C (1998) Micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) and fluid flows. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 30(1):579–612
Hwang DK, Dendukuri D, Doyle PS (2008) Microfluidic-based synthesis of non-spherical magnetic hydrogel microparticles. Lab Chip 8(10):1640–1647
Li M, Humayun M, Kozinski JA, Hwang DK (2014) Functional polymer sheet patterning using microfluidics. Langmuir 30(28):8637–8644
Moon B-U, Lee J-M, Shim C-H, Lee M-B, Lee J-H, Lee D-D, Lee J-H (2005) Silicon bridge type micro-gas sensor array. Sens Actuators B 108(2):271–277
Neale SL, MacDonald MP, Dholakia K, Krauss TF (2005) All-optical control of microfluidic components using form birefringence. Nat Mater 4(7):530–533
Panda P, Ali S, Lo E, Chung BG, Hatton TA, Khademhosseini A, Doyle PS (2008) Stop-flow lithography to generate cell-laden microgel particles. Lab Chip 8(7):1056–1061
Qin D, Xia Y, Whitesides GM (2010) Soft lithography for micro- and nanoscale patterning. Nat Protoc 5(3):491–502
Ryu KS, Shaikh K, Goluch E, Fan Z, Liu C (2004) Micro magnetic stir-bar mixer integrated with parylene microfluidic channels. Lab Chip 4(6):608–613
Shepherd RF, Panda P, Bao Z, Sandhage KH, Hatton TA, Lewis JA, Doyle PS (2008) Stop-flow lithography of colloidal, glass, and silicon microcomponents. Adv Mater 20(24):4734–4739
Stark KC, Azzam Yasseen A, Phillips SM, Mehregany M (2002) Micro torque measurement using outer-rotor polysilicon micromotors. Sens Proc IEEE 2002:1751–1756
Stone HA, Stroock AD, Ajdari A (2004) Engineering flows in small devices. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 36(1):381–411
White FM (2003) Fluid mechanics, 5th edn. McGraw-Hill, New York
Wu Z, Frederic KJ, Talarico M, De Kee D (2009) Porous polymer monolith templated by small polymer molecules. Can J Chem Eng 87(4):579–583
Yue T, Nakajima M, Takeuchi M, Fukuda T (2014) Improved laser manipulation for on-chip fabricated microstructures based on solution replacement and its application in single cell analysis. Int J Adv Robot Syst 11:1–7
Acknowledgments
D.K. Hwang (Grant No. 386092-2010) and S.S.H. Tsai (Grant No. 435514-2013) both acknowledge funding support from Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery grants program.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Supplementary material 2 (MPG 96 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moon, BU., Tsai, S.S.H. & Hwang, D.K. Rotary polymer micromachines: in situ fabrication of microgear components in microchannels. Microfluid Nanofluid 19, 67–74 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-015-1548-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-015-1548-6