Democratised microfluidic prototyping using a 3D-printed click-and-connect scaffold library

This paper reports a negligible-cost, open-source method for the rapid prototyping of microfluidic systems in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using a 3D-printed library of click-and-connect microchannel scaffolds. In conjunction with a simple thermal bonding process, these single-extrusion thermoplastic scaffolds are designed and used to quickly configure microfluidic system negatives, for use as master molds in the fabrication of PDMS microfluidics demonstrated herein. With this technique, a 5000-piece library of mix-and-match interconnecting channel scaffolds can be printed, with a 100 µm channel width, for ~$0.50. This simple yet innovative approach could help to lower the economic barriers for lab-on-a-chip fabrication.