Microfluidic devices are devices that have microchannels in them and are used to study various aspects of fluid flow on the micro level. One current way of producing these devices is the hydrogel molding method. In this method the hydrogel is laid and then later melted away to form the microchannels on the device. This method is widely used since it does not require expensive equipment and can be relatively easily used. The current way to employ this method is to lay the hydrogel by hand which is a tedious and imprecise task liable to errors.

Our device is a printer that will automatically lay the channels based on user input. It will eliminate the need to do this by hand therefore improving the precision of the channel dimensions and reduce the tediousness of the process. This system will consist of a high precision x-y table to control the channel formation and a deposition system to deliver the hydrogel. It will be able to interface with user input thereby being able to create a variety of channel designs based on user need. The immediate users for this device are those that use the hydrogel molding process to fabricate 2-D microfluidic devices. This includes researchers that use the microfluidic devices for various applications including cell biology, haematology, drug screening, etc.