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Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM)

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the Center author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Center Overview

The Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM) develops advanced design tools and manufacturing technologies for integrated microfluidics. Its mission is to advance research and education on the science, engineering, and applications of integrated microfluidic design and scalable production to develop low-power, automated, self-contained, mass-produced microdevices capable of multistep biochemical assessments.

CADMIM's goal is to support cost-effective, quick, and easy diagnosis of conditions in

the environment, agriculture, and food and water supplies, ultimately to protect human health and safety. For example, developing new medicines requires the efficient screening of millions of compounds, feeding a growing population demands faster breeding and testing of crop varieties, and protecting water supplies or beaches requires rapid lab results for ocean and urban runoff assays. In each of these areas, fluidic samples must be analyzed quickly, accurately, and at the lowest possible cost per test. CADMIM's strategy centers on mass-produced diagnostic devices equipped with microfluidic components: chip-sized devices with high sensitivities and short reaction times of one minute or less that are capable of chemical analyses in miniaturized volumes.

CADMIM focuses on three research areas that are intellectually intertwined. The ultimate challenge is to simultaneously innovate in all these areas to refine on-chip functions; ensure compatibility and connectivity; integrate intelligence and communication; anticipate, overcome, or circumvent bottlenecks; and create high-capability, self-contained, manufacturable microdevices. This is a fresh approach to microfluidic biochip development, designed to dramatically reduce cost with equal or superior performance to lab-based functionality, allowing for low-cost manufacture and widespread deployment.

Universities

University of Illinois, Chicago
University of California, Irvine

View Center Website

Center Personnel

Abraham Lee
Center Director
+1 949 824 9691
aplee@uci.edu

Gisela Lin
Center Deputy Director
+1 949 648 1487
gisela@uci.edu

Ian Papautsky
Center Co-Director
+1 312 413 3800
papauts@uic.edu

Research Focus

Integration and control systems

Integration combines basic science with the implementation of sensing, analysis, and detection in manufacturable biochips and includes the development of interfaces to manage and communicate results. Options include a visual readout, such as a color change on the chip that can be read by the naked eye or digitally photographed and uploaded to the internet, or an electrical signal that can be interfaced to a smartphone or transmitted via a USB interface to a laptop computer. CADMIM researchers are also investigating the production of biochips with on-command, intelligent, programmable diagnostics that can perform multiple tests at the same time.

Manufacturable processes and materials

Many materials used for microfluidic devices are not suitable for large-scale production, and several manufacturable processes have yet to be explored for the production of low-cost microfluidic chips. Automated roll-to-roll methods for tape-based plastic hot embossing, paper printing, and thin-film metal lamination (e.g., flexible circuit technology), commonly used in consumer products, can all be adapted for lab-on-a-chip production. These processes can be merged to create a new class of mass-produced diagnostic devices.

Sample processing and detection

No group has attempted to jointly address long-standing issues in the microfluidics field in the context of mass-produced, low-cost, disposable, easy-to-use diagnostics. Innovation in sample filtering, constituent enrichment and separation, on-chip reagent storage, and fluidic functions (such as metering, mixing, and transport) in low-cost manufacturable biochips are some of the critical aspects for self-contained labs-on-a-chip. Innovation must also occur at the assay and detection level, such as the development of simplified cellular and molecular assays, tests that implement different transduction mechanisms (e.g., optical, mechanical, magnetic), and probes that are specifically designed to enable cheap disposable microfluidic platforms with more complex functions.

Awards

1841509

Phase II IUCRC at University of California, Irvine: Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM)

The Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM) develops technologies for integrating and manufacturing labs-on-a-chip (LOCs) for easy diagnosis of the human health, agriculture, and the environment. CADMIM emphasizes design-oriented research that anticipates the need for cost-effective manufacture and practical deployment, taking a broad integrated strategy that seeks breakthroughs at the interfaces of material science, engineering, biology, chemistry, and electronics in the development of next generation LOCs. These considerations early in the research and design cycle are key to transitioning technologies out of academic laboratories and into the manufacturing sector. Expected broader impacts include competitive recruitment mechanisms and attractive cross-disciplinary collaborative research opportunities to engage excellent students and post-docs, including members of underrepresented groups and veterans. Knowledge dissemination includes publications, invention disclosures, and patents. Scalable prototyping processes developed and/or adapted for microfluidics will also be made available to academia and industry, including established companies and entrepreneurs, with a goal to dramatically reduce the learning curve and streamline the idea-to-product process. This center will help catalyze the generation of new knowledge and pre-competitive research results to enable the development of microfluidics based technologies to enable industry to address pressing societal needs. The goal of this center is to develop technologies for integrating and manufacturing labs-on-a-chip (LOCs) for easy diagnosis of the human health, agriculture, and the environment. The strategy for meeting this goal centers on mass-produced diagnostic devices equipped with microfluidic components, chip-sized devices with high sensitivities (nano-molar to pico-molar) and short assay times (< 30 min) -- capable of chemical analyses in miniaturized volumes (micro-liter to pico-liter). The few available commercial microfluidic systems are expensive (costing up to hundreds of thousand dollars) and do not have effective sampling and analysis capability. What does not yet exist are mass-produced, cost-effective LOC platforms that integrate components to carry out multiple microfluidic/diagnostic functions and report results via a standard communications device. A primary obstacle is the lack of integration-enabling and manufacturable LOCs capable of processing real-world samples. Innovation is needed on two related fronts: (a) employing and/or modifying existing scalable processes make microfluidic devices, and (b) designing LOCs that are autonomous, field deployable, and amenable to mass production. By working closely with industrial member companies, CADMIM will make significant strides towards commercialization of microfluidic technology, leading to new products, the creation of new companies and/or new divisions within existing firms, new jobs, and other tangible commercial and societal impacts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >

1841473

Phase II IUCRC at University of Illinois at Chicago: Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM)

The Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM) develops technologies for integrating and manufacturing labs-on-a-chip (LOCs) for easy diagnosis of the human health, agriculture, and the environment. CADMIM emphasizes design-oriented research that anticipates the need for cost-effective manufacture and practical deployment, taking a broad integrated strategy that seeks breakthroughs at the interfaces of material science, engineering, biology, chemistry, and electronics in the development of next generation LOCs. These considerations early in the research and design cycle are key to transitioning technologies out of academic laboratories and into the manufacturing sector. Expected broader impacts include competitive recruitment mechanisms and attractive cross-disciplinary collaborative research opportunities to engage excellent students and post-docs, including members of underrepresented groups and veterans. Knowledge dissemination includes publications, invention disclosures, and patents. Scalable prototyping processes developed and/or adapted for microfluidics will also be made available to academia and industry, including established companies and entrepreneurs, with a goal to dramatically reduce the learning curve and streamline the idea-to-product process. This center will help catalyze the generation of new knowledge and pre-competitive research results to enable the development of microfluidics based technologies to enable industry to address pressing societal needs. The goal of this center is to develop technologies for integrating and manufacturing labs-on-a-chip (LOCs) for easy diagnosis of the human health, agriculture, and the environment. The strategy for meeting this goal centers on mass-produced diagnostic devices equipped with microfluidic components, chip-sized devices with high sensitivities (nM - pM) and short assay times (< 30 min) -- capable of chemical analyses in miniaturized volumes (ul - pl). The few available commercial microfluidic systems are expensive (costing up to hundreds of thousand dollars) and do not have effective sampling and analysis capability. What does not yet exist are mass-produced, cost-effective LOC platforms that integrate components to carry out multiple microfluidic/diagnostic functions and report results via a standard communications device. A primary obstacle is the lack of integration-enabling and manufacturable LOCs capable of processing real-world samples. Innovation is needed on two related fronts: (a) employing and/or modifying existing scalable processes make microfluidic devices, and (b) designing LOCs that are autonomous, field deployable, and amenable to mass production. By working closely with industrial member companies, CADMIM will make significant strides towards commercialization of microfluidic technology, leading to new products, the creation of new companies and/or new divisions within existing firms, new jobs, and other tangible commercial and societal impacts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >

Member Organizations

IUCRC affiliated member organizations are displayed as submitted by the Center. Non-federal organizations are not selected, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the National Science Foundation.