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Micromachines
Special Issues
3D Printed Micro-/Nano Devices
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3D Printed Micro-/Nano Devices

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "D3: 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2022) | Viewed by 25643

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hyun-Taek Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Republic of Korea
Interests: advanced manufacturing process; micro-/nanoscale design and fabrication; smart materials; micro-robotics
Dr. Minsoo Kim

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Multi-Scale Robotics Lab, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Interests: micro-​robotics; actuators/sensors based on functional materials; micro-​/nanoscale fabrications; manufacturing processes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent advances in nanoscale 3D printing processes have brought promising improvements in the applications of micro-/nanoscale devices. This allows us to build 3D structures rapidly at low cost that were previously difficult or impossible to create and has enabled a wide range of applications, such as microrobotics, optical sensors, energy devices, and microfluidic device for medical or industrial purposes. Despite recent improvements in 3D printing techniques, 3D printed micro-/nanodevices still have a lot of obstacles to overcome in terms of possible application area, utilizable materials, and available manufacturing processes for better performance.

This Special Issue on “3D-Printed Micro-/Nanodevices” of Micromachines seeks to showcase research papers and review articles focusing on novel manufacturing technologies as well as novel micro-/nanoscale devices related to 3D printing methods.

Dr. Hyun-Taek Lee
Dr. Min-Soo Kim
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • Microrobotics
  • Microsensors
  • Microactuators
  • MEMS

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 2756 KiB  
Article
Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Die Swell in 3D Printing Processes
by Stefano De Rosa, Daniele Tammaro and Gaetano D’Avino
Micromachines 2023, 14(2), 329; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14020329 - 27 Jan 2023
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4487
Abstract
Fused deposition modelling is one of the most widely used additive manufacturing techniques and the diffusion of 3D printers has increased in popularity even further in recent times. Since high precision is required in 3D printing, a good control over the extrusion process [...] Read more.
Fused deposition modelling is one of the most widely used additive manufacturing techniques and the diffusion of 3D printers has increased in popularity even further in recent times. Since high precision is required in 3D printing, a good control over the extrusion process is necessary. In this regard, a crucial phenomenon to be accounted for is the die or extrudate swell, i.e., the enlargement of the cross-section of the strand when coming out of the printer nozzle. While this phenomenon has been studied in large scale extruders, it has not yet been investigated in depth for 3D printing processes. In this work, the die swell phenomenon observed in a printed PLA filament is studied by experiments and fluid dynamic simulations. A novel, easy-to-use, accurate and fast procedure for measuring the value of the die swell ratio during the printing process is developed, accounting for typical errors related to a non-constant strand diameter and possible oscillations of the filament with respect to the extrusion direction. As the printing velocity is increased, a linearly increasing swelling ratio is observed at low printing speeds. The trend flattens at moderate speed values. A sudden increase is found at high printing velocities. The swelling ratio measured with the proposed technique is compared with the results of multi-mode viscoelastic simulations at different temperatures. A fair agreement between the experimental measurements and the numerical predictions is found for printing velocities that are typically employed in commercial 3D printers, supporting the reliability of the developed procedure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Micro-/Nano Devices)
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10 pages, 2346 KiB  
Article
Characterization and Evaluation of 3D-Printed Connectors for Microfluidics
by Qianwen Xu, Jeffery C. C. Lo and Shi-Wei Ricky Lee
Micromachines 2021, 12(8), 874; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12080874 - 26 Jul 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 6093
Abstract
3D printing is regarded as a useful tool for the fabrication of microfluidic connectors to overcome the challenges of time consumption, clogging, poor alignment and bulky fixtures existing for current interconnections. 3D-printed connectors without any additional components can be directly printed to substrate [...] Read more.
3D printing is regarded as a useful tool for the fabrication of microfluidic connectors to overcome the challenges of time consumption, clogging, poor alignment and bulky fixtures existing for current interconnections. 3D-printed connectors without any additional components can be directly printed to substrate with an orifice by UV-assisted coaxial printing. This paper further characterized and evaluated 3D-printed connectors fabricated by the proposed method. A process window with an operable combination of flow rates was identified. The outer flow rate could control the inner channel dimensions of 3D-printed connectors, which were expected to achieve less geometric mismatch of flow paths in microfluidic interfaces. The achieved smallest inner channel diameter was around 120 µm. Furthermore, the withstood pressure of 3D-printed connectors was evaluated to exceed 450 kPa, which could enable microfluidic chips to work at normal pressure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Micro-/Nano Devices)
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13 pages, 2868 KiB  
Article
Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) for Manufacturing of Microfluidic Micromixers: An Experimental Study on the Effect of Process Variables in Printed Microfluidic Micromixers
by Mojtaba Zeraatkar, Marco D. de Tullio and Gianluca Percoco
Micromachines 2021, 12(8), 858; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12080858 - 22 Jul 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2992
Abstract
The need for accessible and inexpensive microfluidic devices requires new manufacturing methods and materials as a replacement for traditional soft lithography and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Recently, with the advent of modern additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, 3D printing has attracted attention for its use in [...] Read more.
The need for accessible and inexpensive microfluidic devices requires new manufacturing methods and materials as a replacement for traditional soft lithography and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Recently, with the advent of modern additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, 3D printing has attracted attention for its use in the fabrication of microfluidic devices and due to its automated, assembly-free 3D fabrication, rapidly decreasing cost, and fast-improving resolution and throughput. Here, fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing was used to create microfluidic micromixers and enhance the mixing process, which has been identified as a challenge in microfluidic devices. A design of experiment (DoE) was performed on the effects of studied parameters in devices that were printed by FFF. The results of the colorimetric approach showed the effects of different parameters on the mixing process and on the enhancement of the mixing performance in printed devices. The presence of the geometrical features on the microchannels can act as ridges due to the nature of the FFF process. In comparison to passive and active methods, no complexity was added in the fabrication process, and the ridges are an inherent property of the FFF process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Micro-/Nano Devices)
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Review

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34 pages, 4196 KiB  
Review
High Precision 3D Printing for Micro to Nano Scale Biomedical and Electronic Devices
by Kirsty Muldoon, Yanhua Song, Zeeshan Ahmad, Xing Chen and Ming-Wei Chang
Micromachines 2022, 13(4), 642; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13040642 - 18 Apr 2022
Cited by 55 | Viewed by 10634
Abstract
Three dimensional printing (3DP), or additive manufacturing, is an exponentially growing process in the fabrication of various technologies with applications in sectors such as electronics, biomedical, pharmaceutical and tissue engineering. Micro and nano scale printing is encouraging the innovation of the aforementioned sectors, [...] Read more.
Three dimensional printing (3DP), or additive manufacturing, is an exponentially growing process in the fabrication of various technologies with applications in sectors such as electronics, biomedical, pharmaceutical and tissue engineering. Micro and nano scale printing is encouraging the innovation of the aforementioned sectors, due to the ability to control design, material and chemical properties at a highly precise level, which is advantageous in creating a high surface area to volume ratio and altering the overall products’ mechanical and physical properties. In this review, micro/-nano printing technology, mainly related to lithography, inkjet and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing and their biomedical and electronic applications will be discussed. The current limitations to micro/-nano printing methods will be examined, covering the difficulty in achieving controlled structures at the miniscule micro and nano scale required for specific applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printed Micro-/Nano Devices)
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