Multi-scale in silico and ex silico mechanics of 3D printed cochlear implants for local drug delivery

The currently available treatments for inner ear disorders often involve systemic drug administration, leading to suboptimal drug concentrations and side effects. Cochlear implants offer a potential solution by providing localized and sustained drug delivery to the cochlea. While the mechanical characterization of both the implants and their...

Additive Manufacturing of a Miniature Functional Trocar for Eye Surgery

Stereolithography is emerging as a promising additive manufacturing technology for a range of applications in the medical domain. However, for miniature, medical devices such as those used in ophthalmic surgery, a number of production challenges arise due to the small size of the components. In this work, we investigate the challenges of...

Light-Based Printing of Leachable Salt Molds for Facile Shaping of Complex Structures

3D printing is a powerful manufacturing technology for shaping materials into complex structures. While the palette of printable materials continues to expand, the rheological and chemical requisites for printing are not always easy to fulfill. Here, a universal manufacturing platform is reported for shaping materials into intricate...

Ionic polymer metal composite-based microfluidic flow sensor for bio-MEMS applications

Sensing flow rates in structured microenvironments like lab-on-chip (LOC) and organ-on-chip (OoC) is crucial to assess important parameters such as transport of media and molecules of interest. So far, these micro-electromechanical systems for biology (bio-MEMS) mostly rely on flow sensing systems based on thermal sensors. However, thermal...

Towards cardiovascular stents fabricated by stereolithography

Currently, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, and a global ageing population ensures increasing numbers for the foreseeable future. Atherosclerosis, responsible for 80\% of cardiovascular deaths, is nowadays treated with stents, which scaffold the balloon-dilated artery and seals the dissection flaps. In 2016, the...

Learning from Nature's Failures: Mimicking Hierarchy in Natural Structures to Create Damage-Tolerant Lattice Materials

To create a more sustainable future for aviation, new, lighter-weight structures and materials will need to be engineered. It will also be critical that damage tolerance and safety are not compromised in the process. Lattice materials represents one avenue of exploration; however, two key challenges arise: limited experimental work has been...

Proportional Microvalve Using a Unimorph Piezoelectric Microactuator

Microvalves are important flow-control devices in many standalone and integrated microfluidic applications. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based pneumatic microvalves are commonly used but they generally require large peripheral connections that decrease portability. There are many alternatives found in the literature that use Si-based microvalves,...

Multiscale 3D-printing of a suspended hollow microfluidic device

Suspended hollow micro-cantilevers have been employed for zeptogram (10^-21 g) mass measurements, pipetting of femtoliter<br/>(10^-15 L) volumes, and studies on mechanical interaction with single cells. The main fabrication method of these devices is by standard clean room micro/nano fabrication techniques, however, they are inherently planar,...