5 ms·

Replacing $100K diagnostic chip fab with Shrinky-Dinks and a laser-printer

36 points by andrewbadera 17y ago

michael_dorfman 17y ago
Now that's an impressive hack. You, Madam, win the internets.
- blhack 17y ago
  In case you're wondering, I think you're being downmodded for using the term "internets". (It drives me nuts that when people downvote you, but don't give an explanation) Given your karma and how long you've been here, you should know better! FOR SHAME!
  - josefresco 17y ago
    No he got downmodded because his comment didn't add to the conversation. One-line, humorous comments with no meat are generally frowned upon and become easy targets.
    - allenp 17y ago
      Additionally, this comment is fairly reddit-esque so I'm guessing there is even more incentive to kill it before it goes any further.
      - teeja 17y ago
        On Slashdot that would qualify as a 4 "Funny"
regularfry 17y ago
Anyone know what scale factor shrinkage you get out of this stuff? I'd quite like to experiment with optical effects, but I don't know what feature size you can get and I haven't got any expanded polystyrene handy for testing.
- aarongough 17y ago
  "When heated in an oven or with a heat gun, the plastic shrinks by about 5/8ths and becomes thicker and more rigid, while retaining the colored design." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks Seems like you would be able to get pretty small feature sizes if you had a really high resolution printer to begin with...
  - regularfry 17y ago
    It surprises me that 5/8ths is enough of a difference to be useful, but then I guess it's the way it bunches and forms a ridge that's important for the microfluidics, not the absolute feature size. Hm.
    - aarongough 17y ago
      It didn't strike me that 5/8ths wasn't actually a huge amount until I thought about it. If the ability to form troughs/ridges is the important thing then I think that the PCB etch/make mold technique would be just as useful. But I'm not sure what the smallest feature size is that you can make with this method: PCB etch/make mold method: Laser-print an inverse pattern mask on clear plastic film Expose a UV sensitive photoresist PCB using the mask Etch the PCB Make a polymer mold (or mold the final part) using the troughs/ridges formed by the etched/unetched copper on the PCB I know this method has been used for replicating fingerprint patterns in the past (Mythbusters!) and I remember hearing it being used for a few other things...
aarongough 17y ago
Topic background info links (for others like me that had no idea what Microfluidics entailed): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfluidics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfluidics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_microarray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_microarray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab-on-a-chip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab-on-a-chip
duh 17y ago
The dearth of women in software development and the preponderance of women in biotechnology are probably not unrelated phenomena.
- MikeCapone 17y ago
  What is the link that you see?
  - duh 17y ago
    I don't see one, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

36 points by andrewbadera 17y ago

michael_dorfman 17y ago

Now that's an impressive hack. You, Madam, win the internets.

blhack 17y ago
In case you're wondering, I think you're being downmodded for using the term "internets". (It drives me nuts that when people downvote you, but don't give an explanation) Given your karma and how long you've been here, you should know better! FOR SHAME!
- josefresco 17y ago
  No he got downmodded because his comment didn't add to the conversation. One-line, humorous comments with no meat are generally frowned upon and become easy targets.
  - allenp 17y ago
    Additionally, this comment is fairly reddit-esque so I'm guessing there is even more incentive to kill it before it goes any further.
    - teeja 17y ago
      On Slashdot that would qualify as a 4 "Funny"

regularfry 17y ago

Anyone know what scale factor shrinkage you get out of this stuff? I'd quite like to experiment with optical effects, but I don't know what feature size you can get and I haven't got any expanded polystyrene handy for testing.

aarongough 17y ago
"When heated in an oven or with a heat gun, the plastic shrinks by about 5/8ths and becomes thicker and more rigid, while retaining the colored design." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks Seems like you would be able to get pretty small feature sizes if you had a really high resolution printer to begin with...
- regularfry 17y ago
  It surprises me that 5/8ths is enough of a difference to be useful, but then I guess it's the way it bunches and forms a ridge that's important for the microfluidics, not the absolute feature size. Hm.
  - aarongough 17y ago
    It didn't strike me that 5/8ths wasn't actually a huge amount until I thought about it. If the ability to form troughs/ridges is the important thing then I think that the PCB etch/make mold technique would be just as useful. But I'm not sure what the smallest feature size is that you can make with this method: PCB etch/make mold method: Laser-print an inverse pattern mask on clear plastic film Expose a UV sensitive photoresist PCB using the mask Etch the PCB Make a polymer mold (or mold the final part) using the troughs/ridges formed by the etched/unetched copper on the PCB I know this method has been used for replicating fingerprint patterns in the past (Mythbusters!) and I remember hearing it being used for a few other things...

aarongough 17y ago

Topic background info links (for others like me that had no idea what Microfluidics entailed): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfluidics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfluidics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_microarray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_microarray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab-on-a-chip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab-on-a-chip

duh 17y ago

The dearth of women in software development and the preponderance of women in biotechnology are probably not unrelated phenomena.

MikeCapone 17y ago
What is the link that you see?
- duh 17y ago
  I don't see one, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.