Roll-to-roll manufacturing of large surface area PDMS devices, and application to a microfluidic artificial lung.

The ability to cost-effectively produce large surface area microfluidic devices would bring many small-scale technologies such as microfluidic artificial lungs (μALs) from the realm of research to clinical and commercial applications. However, efforts to scale up these devices, such as by stacking multiple flat μALs have been labor intensive and resulted in bulky devices. Here, we report an automated manufacturing system, and a series of cylindrical multi-layer lungs manufactured with the system and tested for fluidic fidelity and function. A roll-to-roll (R2R) system to engrave multiple-layer devices was assembled. Unlike typical applications of R2R, the rolling process is synchronized to achieve consistent radial positioning. This allows the fluidics in the final device to be accessed without being unwrapped. To demonstrate the capabilities of the R2R manufacturing system, this method was used to manufacture multi-layer μALs. Gas and blood are engraved in alternating layers and routed orthogonally to each other. The proximity of gas and blood separated by gas permeable PDMS permits CO