Inkjet Printing for Applications in Microfluidic Lab-on-Chip Systems

摘要

Inkjet printing is a digital printing technique that is capable of depositing various functional materials onto different substrates in an additive way. In this contribution, applications of inkjet printed structures for smart microfluidic lab-on-chip systems are discussed. Such systems can be used e.g. for different chemical or biochemical analysis tasks and are often fabricated from polymers. Inkjet-printed electrodes and electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators for use in microfluidic lab-on-chip systems are shown. Silver and gold electrodes are presented that are fabricated by printing metal nanoparticle inks onto polymer substrates. After printing the structures are sintered using low-pressure argon plasma sintering, a low-temperature sintering process that is compatible with polymer substrates with a low glass transition temperature T_G. The structures consist of several electrodes and contact pads and feature minimum structure sizes of approximately 70 μm. These structures are in principle suitable for requirements in lab-on-chip systems. The use of all inkjet-printed EAP actuators in a polymer-based micropump is discussed. Cantilever-type bending actuators generate deflections of more than 190 μm when a voltage of 600 V is applied. Based on these results, performance characteristics of a micropump with printed actuators are estimated.