microfluidic chips to order

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Dakota Hamill

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Feb 14, 2014, 4:27:41 PM2/14/14
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Anyone know of any websites that would make a few chips to order, or give you a master mould?  Sort of like 3D printing to order, but for microfluidics.

http://www.fluigent.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/microfluidic-chip-micronit.jpg

I'm looking for something exactly like that, except I want 3 channel inputs at the top, not two, then the long pathway, with one exit.

I'm pretty bad at using Sketchup so I've been trying to find design files someone else already made.

Thanks

Cory Tobin

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Feb 14, 2014, 4:37:00 PM2/14/14
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I've used the Stanford Microfluidics Foundry before, although I just
went to their website and found that they are discontinuing their
fee-for-service program.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/foundry/Services.html But they do have
some recommendations for other good companies.

-cory

Cathal Garvey

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Feb 14, 2014, 4:38:34 PM2/14/14
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I've heard of people using circuitboard traces as a cast?
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Avery louie

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Feb 14, 2014, 5:04:05 PM2/14/14
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What trace size? Hit me up with the deets, I might know something.

--A

Cathal Garvey

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Feb 14, 2014, 5:30:08 PM2/14/14
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No idea, I just recall seeing it discussed! :)
Looking at this handy adafruit ruler though, trace sizes can get pretty
small.. looks like 0.2mm on this ruler, and I expect they go lower with
some companies.
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Sebastian Cocioba

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Feb 14, 2014, 8:50:49 PM2/14/14
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I was actually speaking with an EE friend about just such a concept.
The smallest trace can go to about 7mil but it would be about 1-2mil
tall. He said using solder reflow could round off the channels. I made
a few shrinkydink chips with some success as long as the channel width
wasn't too small and only one layer. Dakota, if you want just send me a
hand drawn sketch and I'll make one for you in PDMS and pop it in the
mail for free. I have a ton of PDMS and shrinky paper so I don't mind.
I use DraftSight from dassault systems but AutoCAD is best for super
high res chips. Shoot me a pic of the chip u want. What's the worst
that can happen? :P

Sebastian S. Cocioba
CEO & Founder
New York Botanics, LLC
Plant Biotech R&D From: Cathal Garvey
Sent: 2/14/2014 5:30 PM
To: diy...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [DIYbio] microfluidic chips to order

Alexey Zaytsev

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Feb 14, 2014, 9:27:30 PM2/14/14
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Would the base surface be flat and smooth enough for a good adhesion to glass?


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Avery louie

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Feb 14, 2014, 9:29:08 PM2/14/14
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If you can make a decent master you can emboss a chip into a thermoplastic.  It might be a method worth looking at.

--A

Sebastian Cocioba

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Feb 14, 2014, 9:36:37 PM2/14/14
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I got the shrinking part down to a science so yet it would be flat enough for macrofluidic channels like 0.5mm+

I use the vacuum plasma method to clean my PDMS and glass slide. It works well but again its more macro than micro. I've made gradient generators, pH sensors (two input laminar pH chromogenic marker flow thing), and some small mixing stuff. End goal was to use it for reliable protoplast isolation and culture. The shrinkydink white (clear sucks) is a bit temperamental but with a convection oven and small cookie sheet you can really get it to set flat. Just takes way longer than the 7min described by the mfg.


Sebastian S. Cocioba
CEO & Founder
New York Botanics, LLC
Plant Biotech R&D

From: Alexey Zaytsev
Sent: 2/14/2014 9:27 PM

Nathan McCorkle

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Feb 15, 2014, 4:21:41 AM2/15/14
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Sebastian, did you ever try using a laser-printed line for any experiments?

I ended up finding that the best program I had to use for printing the
crispest lines on a laser printer was MSPAINT or GIMP, using a black
and white (1 bit per pixel) BMP image. The number of colors doesn't
make it less crisp, but it takes WAY more space, and you need make
sure you're only using pure white or black.

I printed a bunch of test lines with all the different contrast
settings in the printer driver and found that InkScape applied
blurring on SVG and line-art, even if the linewidth was super-thin...
the BMP image editors printed lines that you could easily tell
individual pixels correlated to increasing line-width.

I did all that, and finally printed a test pattern (just some lines of
different thickness), but never actually went and exposed the
photo-resist! I'm too busy to do any lab work on this stuff for about
a month or so, but here's the image I made up:
http://nathanmccorkle.com/microfluidic_exposure_test_single_pixels.bmp

I deleted every-other pixel at the bottom of each line, so you can
visually tell how many pixels they are supposed to be when you're
zoomed in on an image program or when inspecting a printout under a
microscope.
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Cathal Garvey

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Feb 15, 2014, 7:16:27 AM2/15/14
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What's 7mil mean? I saw "mil" and thought "millimeters" but of course
that's not right, 7mm is very wide!
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Jonathan Street

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Feb 15, 2014, 8:46:16 AM2/15/14
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In the US it's a thousandth of an inch. 7 mil is 0.18 mm

Dakota Hamill

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Feb 15, 2014, 1:15:23 PM2/15/14
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Thanks for the offers of help Avery and Sebastian.   I'll try to draw it out by hand or in DraftSight or the other one you mentioned.  I'm not looking to make droplets just continuous flow to mix 3 chemicals together, have them spend some time in a long mixing path reacting, then exit out one end into a vial to collect.  I wouldn't know what channel size would be off the top of my head.


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Sebastian Cocioba

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Feb 15, 2014, 1:55:52 PM2/15/14
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Not a problem! Just don't forget dimension and, for me, has to fit on a standard copy paper sheet (technically a 9" circle) which will shrink to fit into a standard 100mm Petri dish. I pour activated PDMS atop the master and once cured, cut the chip with a scalpel. I can't change channel height being that my printer does not do well with two passes since its manually fed which can lead to misalignment. If you give me a basic idea of the volumes and flow rates needed that would help. Once done Ill post a video of the chip in action and if you like it ill ship it out. All I ask in return is for science to be done, and to pay it forward. Good luck!


Sebastian S. Cocioba
CEO & Founder
New York Botanics, LLC
Plant Biotech R&D

From: Dakota Hamill
Sent: 2/15/2014 1:15 PM
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