Finger-powred, 3D printed microfluidic pumps

This work demonstrates for the first time an entirely 3D printed microfluidic pump powered by a human finger that can produce fluidic flows of 157μL/min from prototype devices, without the use of electricity. Specific accomplishments as compared with state-of-art fluidic actuators include: (1) fully 3D printed fluidic actuators without using electrical power; and (2) seamless 3D design integration and fabrication with discrete fluidic diodes, capacitors and microchannels. A few of the potential microfluidic applications of the prototype device presented in this work are towards uses in low-cost and portable autonomous and semi-autonomous fluidic controls, chemical analytical platforms and bio-assays. In addition, this work also demonstrates results of an expanded fluidic prototype platform, one that uses a single finger-powered actuation source to perform simultaneous pumping and mixing of two fluidic inputs “on-chip”, demonstrating a potential application as a twofluid microfluidic mixer.