Abstract
In this article, we introduce a rapid and simple fabrication method to realize a 3-dimensional (3-D) microfluidic channel with a near-perfect circular cross section. This new concept of fabrication method is defined by metal wire removal process, where the metal wire such as a thin soldering wire for the 3-D circular shape is commercially available. For the microfluidic channel mold, PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) was poured on several shapes such as 3-D circular, helix, and double helix shapes, of soldering wire and solidified. The soldering wire was then melted out by heating. With the two-step process, rapidly and simply fabricated 3-D circular microfluidic channels can be obtained. CPAE (endothelial cell line) cells were cultured inside the channel to evaluate the biocompatibility of the fabricated microfluidic channel. Our method will be very useful in making various circular shapes of 3-D microfluidic devices that need multi-depth and round corners inside the channel.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the “System IC 2010”project (10030554-2008-02) of the Korea Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. Facilities were kindly provided by the National Core Research Center (NCRC) for Nanomedical Technology (Grant no. R15-2004-024-00000-0) of the National Research Foundation, and the ICBIN of the Seoul R&BD program (Grant no. 10816).
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Song, SH., Lee, CK., Kim, TJ. et al. A rapid and simple fabrication method for 3-dimensional circular microfluidic channel using metal wire removal process. Microfluid Nanofluid 9, 533–540 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-010-0570-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-010-0570-y