Design and Assembly of a Thin-Plate Mechatronic Atomizer by 3D Printing

Abstract

Microfluidic structures and devices have been studied over decades for the transport of liquid through internal channels using versatile microfabrication schemes such as surface and bulk micromachining technologies. One challenge in consideration of the device design involves the breakthrough of microfluidic reservoir and channels being substantially limited in two-dimensional (2D) geometry. However, recent progress of the emerging 3D printing technologies has showed great potential to overcome this problem in a simple manner. This paper comprehensively reports an additive manufacturing of polylactic acid (PLA) layers to significantly improve the complexity in the formation of the 3D microfluidic structures as compared to conventional micro-manufacturing techniques. Moreover, a handheld mechatronic device with a small height of ~10 mm, assembled with a thin planar atomizer and a micro controller, was produced and demonstrated for generation of droplets (~6 μm in diameter). Both the analytical and experimental results indicated that the grids of channel microstructures were simply varied by different line widths (300–500 μm) and spacing (250–400 μm) 3D printed within the device, thereby providing the design capability for capillary flow. In this regard, a variety of complex micro devices fabricated via computer-aided design (CAD) and the 3D printing method could be applied for more applications than ever, such as microfluidic delivery of biomedical materials and health care devices of a small size.