Fully woven textile-based closed microfluidic system design

Abstract

Textile materials are used to produce open microfluidic systems without large-scale microfabrication. Sacrificial monofilament pull-out is one technique for creating closed microfluidic systems. However, removing sacrificial monofilament is manual and does not allow large-scale production. This work combines this technique with the possibilities of the large-scale output offered by weaving technologies to produce a closed microfluidic system with the minimal obstruction of the view. Three patterns (plain, twill, and satin weaves) create support reinforcements to introduce the sacrificial monofilament. They are impregnated in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. The design and morphology of the microfluidic channel and the maximum extraction force are studied depending on the woven fabric parameters. All reinforcements designed have been optimized to obtain a microfluidic channel with a diameter of around 500 µm and a length of 200 mm without fluid leakage. In addition, the woven reinforcement acted as a guide for the extraction of the sacrificial monofilament. The distribution of binding points allows the observation range to be modulated. Increasing the number of binding points results in a linear decrease in both visibility and extraction force.

Keywords:

• weaving
• closed system
• textile-based microfluidics
• pull-out test

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Agence Nationale De La Recherche (ANR), grant number ANR-20-CE19-0012.