A Research Factory for Polymer Microdevices: muFac
As part of our research on the manufacturing science of micron scale polymer-based devices, an automated production cell has been developed to explore its use in a volume manufacturing environment. This "micro-factory" allows the testing of models and hardware that have resulted from resea...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers
2010
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/58473 |
| _version_ | 1826205324049121280 |
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| author | Hardt, David E. Anthony, Brian Hale, Melinda Rae Zarrouati, Nadege |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Hardt, David E. Anthony, Brian Hale, Melinda Rae Zarrouati, Nadege |
| author_sort | Hardt, David E. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | As part of our research on the manufacturing science of micron scale polymer-based devices, an automated production cell has been developed to explore its use in a volume manufacturing environment. This "micro-factory" allows the testing of models and hardware that have resulted from research on material characterization and simulation, tooling and equipment design and control, and process control and metrology. More importantly it has allowed us to identify the problems that exist between and within unit-processes. This paper details our efforts to produce basic micro-fluidic products in high volume at acceptable production rates and quality levels. The device chosen for our first product is a simple binary micromixer with 40×50 micron channel cross section manufactured by embossing of PMMA. The processes in the cell include laser cutting and drilling, hot embossing, thermal bonding and high-speed inspection of the components. Our goal is to create a "lights-out" factory that can make long production runs (e.g. an 8 hour shift) at high rates (Takt time of less than 3 minutes) with consistent quality. This contrasts with device foundries where prototypes in limited quantities but with high variety are the goal. Accordingly, rate and yield are dominant factors in this work, along with the need for precise material handling strategies. Production data will be presented to include process run charts, sampled functional testing of the products and measures of the overall system throughput. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:10:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/58473 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:10:54Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| publisher | Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/584732022-09-28T12:27:45Z A Research Factory for Polymer Microdevices: muFac Hardt, David E. Anthony, Brian Hale, Melinda Rae Zarrouati, Nadege Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity Hardt, David E. Hardt, David E. Anthony, Brian Hale, Melinda Rae Zarrouati, Nadege As part of our research on the manufacturing science of micron scale polymer-based devices, an automated production cell has been developed to explore its use in a volume manufacturing environment. This "micro-factory" allows the testing of models and hardware that have resulted from research on material characterization and simulation, tooling and equipment design and control, and process control and metrology. More importantly it has allowed us to identify the problems that exist between and within unit-processes. This paper details our efforts to produce basic micro-fluidic products in high volume at acceptable production rates and quality levels. The device chosen for our first product is a simple binary micromixer with 40×50 micron channel cross section manufactured by embossing of PMMA. The processes in the cell include laser cutting and drilling, hot embossing, thermal bonding and high-speed inspection of the components. Our goal is to create a "lights-out" factory that can make long production runs (e.g. an 8 hour shift) at high rates (Takt time of less than 3 minutes) with consistent quality. This contrasts with device foundries where prototypes in limited quantities but with high variety are the goal. Accordingly, rate and yield are dominant factors in this work, along with the need for precise material handling strategies. Production data will be presented to include process run charts, sampled functional testing of the products and measures of the overall system throughput. Singapore-MIT Alliance 2010-09-07T15:32:47Z 2010-09-07T15:32:47Z 2010-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0277-786X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/58473 Anthony, Brian W. et al. “A research factory for polymer microdevices: muFac.” Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems VIII. Ed. Holger Becker & Wanjun Wang. San Francisco, California, USA: SPIE, 2010. 75930A-12. ©2010 SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.845701 Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems VIII Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers SPIE |
| spellingShingle | Hardt, David E. Anthony, Brian Hale, Melinda Rae Zarrouati, Nadege A Research Factory for Polymer Microdevices: muFac |
| title | A Research Factory for Polymer Microdevices: muFac |
| title_full | A Research Factory for Polymer Microdevices: muFac |
| title_fullStr | A Research Factory for Polymer Microdevices: muFac |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Research Factory for Polymer Microdevices: muFac |
| title_short | A Research Factory for Polymer Microdevices: muFac |
| title_sort | research factory for polymer microdevices mufac |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/58473 |
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