Towards the manufacturing of microfluidic devices : fluid flow in multilayer devices as a test case

In this work, the area of microfluidics is analyzed for advances that could be made in the manufacturing of a microfluidic device, and then one area - the alignment of multilayer devices - is selected for greater focus. Microfluidics is an emerging technology receiving much attention to date for its potential in biological, chemical, and medical applications. It could bring costs savings and contamination-reducing disposable parts, but only if certain hurdles relating to the design and fabrication of the devices are overcome. In order to better understand the manufacturing issues, a survey of the applications is presented, with a focus on the functional requirements for the fabrication of the devices. Then, a survey of the techniques currently in use to create microfluidic devices is presented, again focusing on the issues related to their fabrication and scalability to large-volume manufacturing. In order to address the issues that arise during the surveys, two new directions are submitted. First, a "test device" is proposed. This test device will consist of a variety of sample features characteristic of many different types of microfluidic devices, in a range of carefully selected dimensions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Korb, Samuel N. (Samuel Noaa), 1984-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jung-Hoon Chun.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36238

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36238