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PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE

Three-dimensional-printing for microfluidics or the

other way around?

Yi Zhang*

Singapore 3D-Printing Center, HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab, School of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract: As microfluidic devices are designed to tackle more intricate tasks, the architecture of microfluidic devices
becomes more complex, and more sophisticated fabrication techniques are in demand. Therefore, it is sensible to fabricate
microfluidic devices by three-dimensional (3D)-printing, which is well-recognized for its unique ability to monolithically
fabricate complex structures using a near-net-shape additive manufacturing process. Many 3D-printed microfluidic platforms
have been demonstrated but can 3D-printed microfluidics meet the demanding requirements in today’s context, and has
microfluidics truly benefited from 3D-printing? In contrast to 3D-printed microfluidics, some go the other way around and
exploit microfluidics for 3D-printing. Many innovative printing strategies have been made possible with microfluidics-
enabled 3D-printing, although the limitations are also largely evident. In this perspective article, we take a look at the current
development in 3D-printed microfluidics and microfluidics-enabled 3D printing with a strong focus on the limitations of the
two technologies. More importantly, we attempt to identify the innovations required to overcome these limitations and to
develop new high-value applications that would make a scientific and social impact in the future.

Keywords: 3D-printing; Bioprinting; Microfluidics

*Correspondence to: Yi Zhang, Singapore 3D-Printing Center, HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab, School of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; yi_zhang@ntu.edu.sg

Received: March 15, 2019; Accepted: May 30, 2019; Published Online: July 3, 2019
Citation: Zhang Y, 2019, 3D-Printing for microfluidics or the other way around? Int J Bioprint, 5(2): 192.
http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v5i2.192

1. Introduction used in microelectronic and mechanical systems
(MEMS). Various microfluidic components are created
Microfluidics is already a mature technology that is by etching microstructures into silicon. The well-
widely adopted in the bioanalytical investigation, established MEMS technology is readily applied to the
clinical diagnostics, and chemical sensing and synthesis.
Microfluidic technology has many compelling advantages fabrication of microfluidic chips, giving microfluidics
over its bulk flow counterpart, such as low reagent a Kickstart. Innovations in silicon-based microfluidic
and sample consumption, favorable thermodynamics networks, actuators, pumps, mixers, and valves emerge
and chemical reaction kinetics, laminar flow profile, at a rapid rate, giving rise to many novels and unique
precise handling of single bioparticles, and high degree microfluidic applications such as cell sorting and
of parallelization and multiplexing [1-4] . Many advanced trapping, biochemical sensing, genetic analysis, and
analytical systems, such as next-generation sequencers drug delivery [5-9] . In spite of their great potential to
and molecular diagnostic platforms, incorporate certain revolutionize biomedical research, these silicon-based
microfluidic components these days. microfluidic devices experience difficulty when trying to
Conventional fabrication of microfluidic devices find their way into biological laboratories, and one of the
heavily relies on micromachining techniques. The main obstacles is the complicated fabrication workflow.
earlier fabrication methods are derived from techniques Although engineers may think that the fabrication of

Three-dimensional-printing for microfluidics or the other way around? © 2019 Zhang. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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