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Advances in 3D Printing for Miniaturized Instruments

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Mechanical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2020) | Viewed by 3898

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 60 Vassar Street, Building 39, Room 415B, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Interests: micro- and nano-enabled multiplexed scaled-down systems that exploit high electric field phenomena; additive manufacturing of micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) with emphasis on microfluidics, sensors, and actuators

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

3D printing encompasses bottom-up additive manufacturing techniques that create, layer by layer, freeform objects described by a computer-aided design (CAD) model. 3D printing has unique advantages over traditional subtracting manufacturing methods; for example, 3D printing can create objects with complex geometry; customize each printed object; and significantly reduce waste, prototyping time, and cost. In recent years, 3D printing has made possible the demonstration of miniaturized systems that outperform counterparts made in a cleanroom, as well as the novel designs that are challenging or unfeasible to construct with standard microfabrication methods due to materials, geometry, or integration issues.

Some of the most exciting work in 3D printing explores monolithically creating 3D, finely featured systems made of a plurality of materials and structures. This is a bio-inspired approach where the different structures accomplish efficiently one or more tasks by optimizing the materials they are made, their geometries, and their interfacing with the other structures of the system. Research in this topic encompasses (i) the development of novel printable materials to tailor transducing, mechanical, or chemical properties; (ii) the improvement of 3D printing technology to resolve smaller voxels and yield multi-material prints; and (iii) the demonstration of designs that surpass counterparts made with cleanroom and other fabrication technologies. In some cases, the demonstration of these novel designs requires the combination of multiple 3D printing methods, optimized to created certain structures in specific materials, that are sequentially conducted to attain a monolithic, fully 3D printed system.

In this call, we request manuscripts that report original work on fully 3D printed miniaturized instruments, that is, miniaturized micro- and nano-enabled systems for sensing and actuation, including but not limited to chemical sensors for low-power/low false-positive sensing, piezoelectric resonators, long-stroke actuators, pumps for liquids and gases, electron sources, mass spectrometers, energy harvesters, implantable devices, and magnetics.

Dr. Luis Fernando Velásquez-García
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • 3D printed micro and nanosystems
  • multi-material printing
  • sensors
  • actuators
  • transduction

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 3598 KiB  
Article
Directly Printed Hollow Connectors for Microfluidic Interconnection with UV-Assisted Coaxial 3D Printing
by Qianwen Xu, Jeffery Chi Chuen Lo and Shi-Wei Ricky Lee
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(10), 3384; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10103384 - 14 May 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3671
Abstract
Effective and reliable interconnections are crucial for microfluidics to connect with the macro world. Current microfluidic interfaces are still bulky, expensive, or with issues of clogging and material limitation. In this study, a novel ultraviolet (UV)-assisted coaxial three-dimensional (3D) printing approach was proposed [...] Read more.
Effective and reliable interconnections are crucial for microfluidics to connect with the macro world. Current microfluidic interfaces are still bulky, expensive, or with issues of clogging and material limitation. In this study, a novel ultraviolet (UV)-assisted coaxial three-dimensional (3D) printing approach was proposed to fabricate hollow microfluidic connectors with advantages of rapid prototyping, fixture-free, and materials compatible. An assembled coaxial nozzle was designed to enable co-flow extrusion, where the inner flow (water) served as the sacrificial layer and the outer flow (adhesive) was cured for shell formation. Furthermore, a converged UV-LED light source was attached to the coaxial nozzle for UV curing of adhesives. UV rheological characterizations were performed to study the UV curing kinematics, and the gelation time was employed to describe the state transition behaviors of UV curable adhesives used in the study. To explore requirements for successful hollow connectors direct printing, processing criteria such as co-flow regime and pre-cure time were investigated. The hollow connectors with an inner channel diameter of ~150 μ m and a height of 5 mm were successfully printed on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and glass substrate. The integration feasibility of the proposed method was also demonstrated by the presented microfluidic device with printed hollow connectors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in 3D Printing for Miniaturized Instruments)
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