Bridging dimensions: combining one- and two-photon 3D printing for microfluidic device fabrication

Additive manufacturing has been invaluable for 3D microfluidic integration. We combine high-resolution two-photon printed microfluidic features with fast one-photon printing to reduce overall fabrication time by about 20-fold without compromising the accuracy of performance-critical features. Alignment strategies and interface design tolerances ensure fluidic sealing and the reproducible assembly between both 3D printing techniques. The resulting devices produce highly monodisperse GelMA-based foams with a polydispersity index of below 5% and tunable bubble radii between 235 and 400 μm. Combining multiple print modalities into a unified fabrication workflow will harness efficiency gains by utilizing high precision only where necessary.