Lab-on-a-Chips integrate a variety of laboratory functions and embed microchannels for small fluid volume handling. These devices are used in medicine, chemistry, and biotechnology applications but a large diffusion is limited due to the manufacturing cost of traditional processes. Additive Manufacturing offers affordable alternatives for the production of microfluidic devices, because the fabrication of embedded micrometric channels is enabled. Stereolithography gained particular attention due to the low cost of both available machines and suitable polymeric materials to be processed. The main restriction to the adoption of this technique comes from the obtainable dimensional accuracy that depends not only on design, but also on process set-up. Firstly, the paper analyses theoretically the physics of stereolithographic processes and focuses on main phenomena related to microchannel manufacturing. Then, specific experimental activities are designed to investigate the combined effect of design and process parameters on the achievable dimensional accuracy of embedded microchannels manufactured through a commercial desktop stereolithography apparatus. In particular, the combined effect of channel nominal dimensions, build orientations and the layer thickness on the obtainable accuracy is examined by referring to a benchmark geometry. The collated experimental data showed that a number of combinations are successful. Besides, the experimental activity revealed that appropriate combinations of design, build orientation and manufacturing parameters can overcome the dimensional limitations reported in previous studies. Both binary logistic regression models to predict the manufacturability of microchannels and linear regression models to estimate the achievable accuracy for those geometries that can be produced successfully are developed.

中文翻译：

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立体光刻制作的微流体装置可制造性评估的实验方法

Lab-on-a-Chips 集成了多种实验室功能，并嵌入了用于处理小体积流体的微通道。这些设备用于医学、化学和生物技术应用，但由于传统工艺的制造成本，其大规模扩散受到限制。增材制造为微流体设备的生产提供了负担得起的替代方案，因为可以制造嵌入式测微通道。由于可用机器和要加工的合适聚合物材料的成本低，立体光刻术获得了特别的关注。采用这种技术的主要限制来自于可获得的尺寸精度，这不仅取决于设计，还取决于工艺设置。首先，该论文从理论上分析了立体光刻工艺的物理学，并重点关注与微通道制造相关的主要现象。然后，设计了特定的实验活动来研究设计和工艺参数对通过商用台式立体光刻设备制造的嵌入式微通道可实现的尺寸精度的综合影响。特别是，通道标称尺寸、构建方向和层厚度对可获得精度的综合影响通过参考基准几何形状进行检查。整理的实验数据表明许多组合是成功的。此外，实验活动表明，适当的设计组合，构建方向和制造参数可以克服先前研究中报告的尺寸限制。开发了用于预测微通道可制造性的二元逻辑回归模型和用于估计可以成功生产的几何形状的可实现精度的线性回归模型。