BioMEMS microfluidic chip design & simulation lab sequence

Goals

During the course of these labs, we will design, simulate, fabricate and test a microfluidic chip prototype. This chip will have 2 inlets, 2 outlets and will have a reactor cavity in the middle. The reactor cavity will have a micropillar filter array in it. We will observe the effect of the micropillar array on the liquids passing through the outlets. The mixing ratios on each outlet will be affected by the size, shape and arrangement of the micropillars.

During this process, you will learn how to make specifications for a microfluidic chip prototype, how to design and fabricate one, how to inspect and verify the physical prototype, how to simulate fluidics in this prototype and extract data from your simulated model, and finally, how to validate your design experimentally. These are essential skills in the field of BioMEMS, but also generally useful in engineering disciplines.

Process overview

Specifications

User requirements: this is usually described in natural language. The customer approaches you and tells what they need the system to do. In our example, it would go like this: "I need a microreactor chip that can mix two liquids. There needs to be a filter in the reactor area, and the product must be split to two collectors. The chip should be the size of a standard microscope slide and should work with silicone tubing we use in our lab (OD 3 mm, ID 1 mm)." Further questions can specify what the customer expects the material to be, what kind of reaction they expect to perform etc. In our case we will only test that the intended fluid mechanics (mixing, splitting, filter) indeed work. 

System requirements: system requirements translate the customer's expectations into hardware features that the product needs to meet.