NPTEL Syllabus

Microfluidic systems - theory and

design - Video course
COURSE OUTLINE
The development of miniaturized non electronic devices lagged behind
the miniaturization trend in microelectronics. In the late 1970s, silicon
technology was extended to machining mechanical microdevices which later came to be known as MEMS (Microelectomechanical
systems). With fluidic and optical components in microdevices,
microsystem technology (MST) is a more accurate description.
The development of microflow sensors, micropumps, and microvalves in
the late 1980s dominated the early stage of microfluidics. However, the
field of Microfluidics came into limelight since the introduction by Manz
et. al. at the 5th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors and
Actuators, which indicated that life sciences and chemistry are the main
application fields of Microfluidics.

NPTEL
http://nptel.iitm.ac.in

Mechanical Engineering
Pre-requisites:
Engineering mathematics

This new research discipline primarily deals with transport phenomena

Fluid Mechanics
and fluid based based devices at the microscopic length scale.
Microfluidic devices may not be silicon based devices fabricated with
silicon micro-machining technology.
Additional Reading:
The main advantage of microfluidics is utilizing the scaling laws for
Reference papers and review articles for
newer effects and better performance. These advantages are derived
different lab-on-chip and bio-sensing
from the microscopic amount of fluid that a microfluidic device can
technologies.
handle. Regardless of the size of the surrounding instrumentation and
the material of which the device is made, only the space where the fluid
Hyperlinks:
is processed has to be miniaturized.
The miniaturization of the entire system, while often beneficial is not a
requirement of the system. The microscopic quantity of the fluid is a key
issue.The course talks in details about basic theory of miniaturization
and effects in fluidic behavior at such scales.
The course also describes details of fabrication processes of microfluidic
devices using silicon and polymer based fabrication techniques. It also
includes several design modules of basic microfluidic devices like
pumps, valves, mixers, reactors etc. and finally describes the usage of
such devices for lifesciences, biotechnology and medicine.
This course would be relevant for mechanical engineering
manufacturing science/ fluidic streams graduate students and some
senior undergraduate students.
The interdisciplinary nature of the course would also be able to attract
students from various disciplines like biosciences/ bioengineering,
chemical engineering and environmental engineering. A considerable
portion of the material will also be directly taught from review articles and
publications. The highly interdisciplinary nature and research focus of
this course may eventually be able attract some undergraduate students
into graduate programs.

COURSE DETAIL
Lecture
No.

1.

Topic

Introduction to Microfludics:

Hours

Purdue University:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/LIBNA
Welcome to BioMEMS Lab at UC Irvine:
http://mmadou.eng.uci.edu/
My Home Page:
http://home.iitk.ac.in/~bhattacs/index.html
Coordinators:
Dr. Shantanu Bhattacharya
Department of Mechanical EngineeringIIT
Kanpur

Microfluidics- The emerging technology

commercial and scientific aspects
Device and Technology development.

2.

Theory of fluid mechanics at miniaturized

length scales:

Intermolecular forces
Three states of matter
Continuum assumption
Continuum mechanics at small scales (gas
flows, liquid flows, boundary
conditionsparallel flowslow Reynolds no.
flowsentrance effects, surface tension)
Molecular approaches (Molecular
dynamics and DSMC techniques)
Electrokinetics (electro-osmosis,
electrophoresis and dielectrophoresis)
Navier stokes equation and non
dimensionalization.

3.

Fabrication techniques for microfluidic

devices:

10

Review of basic fabrication processes for

silicon:
Introduction to microelectronic fabrication
Optical lithography
photo-resists
Non optical lithography techniques
LIGA processes
Design Considerations
Vacuum science and plasmas
Etching techniques
Physical vapor deposition (evaporation
and sputtering)
Chemical vapor deposition.
Review of basic fabrication processes for
polymers:
Polymer materials for microsystems
Polymeric micromachining technology like
softlithography
Bulk and surface micromachining
replication technologies
laser machining
micro-stereo lithography
micro-molding

micro-molding
Assembly and packaging of micro-systems
Biocompatibility of materials and
processes.

4.

Experimental flow characterization:

(Fundamental physics consideration of

Micro-PIV, Special processing methods for
Micro-PIV recordings, Advanced
processing methods)
Micro-PIV examples (flow in a
microchannel, flow in a micronozzle, flow
around a blood cell, flow in a microfluidic
biochip)
Extensions of Micro-PIV technique
(Microfluidic nanoscope, Micro-particle
image thermometry, Infrared Micro-PIV,
Particle racking velocimetry).

5.

Microfluidics for internal flow control:

Microvalves (Design considerations,

Pneumatic valves, Thermopneumatic
valves, Thermomechanical valves,
Peizoelectric valves, Electrostatic valves,
Electromagnetic valves, Electrochemical
valves, Capillary force valves etc.)
Mechanical Micropumps ( design
considerations, check valve pumps,
peristaltic pumps, valveless rectification
pumps, rotary pumps, centrifugal pumps,
ultrasonic pumps).
Nonmechanical pumps (Electrical pumps,
Surface tension driven pumps, Chemical
pumps, Magnetic pumps) etc.
Micromixers (design considerations,
building and testing).

6.

Microfluidics for life-sciences and chemistry:

Microfliters, Microneedles, Microreactors,

Microdispensors, Microseparators (Design
considerations , fabricating and testing).
References:
1. Fundamentals and applications of Microfluidics, Nam-Trung
Nguyen, Steve T. Werely, Artech house Inc., 685 Canton Street,
Norwood, MA02062, 2002.
2. The Science and Engineering of Microelectronic Fabrication
(Second Edition), Stephen A. Cambell, Oxford University Press,
198, Madison Avenue, New York 10016, 2001.
3. Microflows, Fundamentals and Simulations, George Em
Karniadakis and Ali Beskok, Springer, New York, 2002.
A joint venture by IISc and IITs, funded by MHRD, Govt of India

http://nptel.iitm.ac.in