3D-Printed micro-optofluidic device for chemical fluids and cells detection

In this work, it is presented a micro-optofluidic flow detector used for on-chip biological and chemical samples investigation. It is made in Poly-dimethyl-siloxane using a master-slave approach based on the 3D-Printing techniques. The micro-optofluidic device is made by assembling a microfluidic T-junction with a micro-optical section that consists of two optical fiber insertions and a PDMS gold-spattered micro-waveguide. The working principle in the detection is based on a different light transmission correlated to the fluid interfering with the laser beam in a micro-channel section. The proposed solution allows to realize a PDMS micro-device taking the advantage of 3D- Printing and goes beyond the restriction in the material selection. The device’s performances were tested in the fluids detection and in the evaluation of the cell concentrations. Additionally, the micro-device was used as a real-time two-phase fluids flow detector. The two-phases flows were successfully monitored in different experimental conditions, varying both hydrodynamic and optical external stimuli.