Virtual and Physical Prototyping

Advanced Additive Manufacturing for Microfluidic Devices: Design, Fabrication, and Integration

Microfluidic devices have become foundational platforms for miniaturized biological analysis, chemical synthesis, and point-of-care diagnostics, driving transformative advances in biomedical engineering, life sciences, and precision medicine. Traditional fabrication techniques, such as soft lithography, are constrained by labor-intensive workflows, limited 3D structural capability, and poor customization, creating critical bottlenecks for rapid prototyping and industrial translation. Advanced additive manufacturing, including high-precision digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing, has emerged as a game-changing solution, enabling the direct fabrication of complex, multi-scale, and multi-material microfluidic architectures with unprecedented design freedom. This Article Collection will showcase cutting-edge research spanning the entire lifecycle of additively manufactured microfluidic devices, from design to fabrication and system integration.

Advanced additive manufacturing addresses the long-standing limitations of conventional microfluidic fabrication, unlocking the potential for fully integrated 3D microfluidic systems that were previously unachievable. This technology drastically reduces development cycles, lowers production costs, and enables mass customization, which is essential for the commercialization of microfluidic-based diagnostic tools, organ-on-a-chip systems, and lab-on-a-chip devices. It also fosters deep interdisciplinary collaboration between additive manufacturing, microfluidics, materials science, and biomedicine, accelerating the translation of lab-scale innovations to clinical and industrial applications. This Collection will serve as a pivotal academic hub, consolidating global research progress, defining technical benchmarks, and guiding the future development of next-generation microfluidic manufacturing technologies.

This Article Collection invites high-quality original research, comprehensive review articles, and technical notes fully aligned with the journal’s scope. Key subtopics directly tied to VPP’s scope include: (1) Design for additive manufacturing for microfluidic devices, covering topological optimisation, functionally graded structures, and CAD/3D data acquisition technologies; (2) High-precision micro/nano 3D printing processes, such as DLP 3D printing, sacrificial template fabrication, and over-curing control, aligned with advancements in AM processes, new material formulations, and material processing; (3) Multi-material printing and heterogeneous design for multi-scale, multi-material integrated microfluidic systems; (4) Functional 3D printing, process optimization, postprocessing, and smart manufacturing for microfluidic mass production; (5) Novel applications of additively manufactured microfluidics in organ-on-a-chip, drug screening, and point-of-care testing, supported by data analytics and predictive modelling. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary work bridging fundamental AM mechanisms with real-world microfluidic device applications.

Keywords: Additive Manufacturing, Microfluidic Devices, Micro/Nano 3D Printing, Design for Additive Manufacturing, Multi-Material Integration

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 31 March 2027.

Please contact Zhan Yu at [email protected] with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select "Advanced Additive Manufacturing for Microfluidic Devices: Design, Fabrication, and Integration" from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

Prof. Nan Zhang is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at University College Dublin, Ireland. His research spans polymer micro/nano manufacturing, atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing, high-precision microfluidic chip fabrication, nanomedicine formulation, and molecular diagnostics. He has published more than 90 SCI-indexed papers and holds four PCT patents under commercialisation. He served as Chair of the 2025 Microfluidic Workshop on Standardization, and as Chair of the 6th and 8th International Conferences on Polymer Replication on the Nanoscale (PRN2019, PRN2022). He is currently Associate Editor of Frontiers in Lab-on-Chip Technologies and Journal of Polymer Materials, and a Council Member and co-Secretary of the Microfluidic Association. Prof. Zhang also contributes as an international committee member for multiple microfluidics standardization initiatives.

Dr. Jens Ducrée holds a Full Professorship of Microsystems in the School of Physical Sciences at Dublin City University (DCU). He has been the founding director of FPC@DCU – Ireland’s first Fraunhofer Project Centre for Embedded Bioanalytical Systems, a joint initiative of Science Foundation Ireland and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Dr. Ducrée is also academic member of the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) and the 3U Joint Institute of Global Health (JIGH), and a principal investigator at the Biodesign Europe (BDE).The main part of his research is directed towards novel microfluidic systems and associated actuation, detection, fabrication and instrumentation technologies for the integration, automation, miniaturization and parallelization of bioanalytical protocols (e.g., immunoassays, nucleic acid testing, general chemistry and cell counting including sample preparation).

Prof. Aminul Islam is a leading researcher in manufacturing engineering with more than two decades of experience spanning academia and industry. His research focuses on advanced materials and processing technologies, micro/nano-scale and precision manufacturing, additive and multimaterial manufacturing, and electro-physical hybrid processes. He has led or co-led more than 30 research and industrial innovation projects, including major national and EU-funded programmes, and is deeply committed to ensuring that scientific advances translate into meaningful industrial impact. At the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Prof. Islam serves as Head of Studies for the BSc Programme in Mechanical Engineering and leads the Materials and Production research unit within CAMM – Centre for Acoustic Mechanical Micro Systems, a strategic research initiative supported by the Danish hearing aid industry. He has authored and co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and has supervised or co-supervised over 150 student projects, including more than 20 PhD and postdoctoral researchers. Prof. Islam is awarded by the International Society for Information Display, the Polymer Processing Society, and Manufacturing-Poznan in recognition of his contributions to manufacturing research and innovation. He is an elected member of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), an active member of the Polymer Processing Society (PPS), and serves on scientific committees including EUSPEN and Manufacturing-Poznan. He is also a frequently appointed expert evaluator for the European Commission and numerous national research funding agencies.

Prof. Xinhui Wang is an Assistant Professor at Southwest Jiaotong University and an EU Marie Curie Fellow. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Materials Engineering from University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Centre for Micro/Nano Manufacturing Technology (MNMT), UCD. His research focuses on high-precision Vat Photopolymerization (VPP) 3D printing and additive manufacturing of microfluidic chips, with a special interest in high-precision micro/nano fabrication and 3D-printed microfluidic devices.

Prof. Honggang Zhang is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Beijing University of Technology, recognized as a high-level talent at both the municipal and university levels. His research interests focus on micro/nano mold manufacturing and electrochemical additive manufacturing. He has led numerous key projects, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, key R&D programs, high-level talent programs, and collaborations with industrial technologies. He serves as a Young Editorial Board member for several international journals, including IJEM, NMME, AMF, and NPE, and is a member of the Association for Engineering and Technology (AET) and the International Society for Nanomanufacturing (ISNM). He has published over 30 high-impact SCI papers as the first or corresponding author—including articles in IJMTM, IJEM, JMPT, AM, and holds several patents.