A disposable, roll-to-roll hot-embossed inertial microfluidic device for size-based sorting of microbeads and cells

We present a low-cost and disposable inertial microfluidic device fabricated using roll-to-roll hot embossing for size-based sorting of microparticles and cells.</p

Online quality assurance of microchannels in roll-to-roll by optical coherence tomography

Abstract Roll-to-roll (R2R) process is an emerging technology to manufacture printed electronics, microfluidics, biochemical sensors etc. The requirements for high quality and small tolerances at the manufacturing phase are of the essence for such products. To verify the quality and guarantee the high production yield, high speed, non-destructive testing methods are needed. In this paper, optical coherence tomography (OCT) device is used at the R2R-line to measure online hot embossed microchannel structures at speed of 1 m/min, which is typical for the hot embossing process. The channel’s width and shape are determined along the web. The applicability of OCT for topography measurements is demonstrated in an actual R2R environment

Reduced blood coagulation on roll-to-roll, shrink-induced superhydrophobic plastics

The unique anti-wetting properties of superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces prevent the adhesion of water and bodily fluids, including blood, urine, and saliva. While typical manufacturable approaches to create SH surfaces rely on chemical and structural modifications, such approaches are expensive, require post-processing, and are often not biocompatible. In contrast, we demonstrate purely structural SH features are easily formed using high-throughput roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing by shrinking a pre-stressed thermoplastic with a thin, stiff layer of silver and calcium. These features are subsequently embossed into any commercially-available and FDA-approved plastic. The R2R SH surfaces have contact angles >150° and contact angle hysteresis 4200x reduction of blood residue area compared to the non-structured controls of the same material. In addition, blood clotting is reduced >5x using whole blood directly from the patient. Furthermore, these surfaces can be easily configued into 3-dimensional shapes, as we demonstrate SH tubes. With the simple scale-up production and the eliminated need for anticoagulants to prevent clotting, the proposed conformable SH surfaces can be impactful for a wide range of medical tools, including catheters and microfluidic channels