New production methods with the ability to make high quality parts with low fabrication costs, have been interested for the industrialists as well as the researchers. With development in different industries, demand for parts with complex geometry and very small dimensions is going to become more and more, but conventional manufacturing methods may not be capable enough to address these requirements. In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) process have shown to be strong fabrication tools for such applications. Because of capability of producing complex geometric parts and lower costs than other precise manufacturing methods, AM has gained lots of applications such as automotive, aerospace, household appliances, decorative and medical sectors. Stereolithography is of most applicable methods of AM which has the ability to make micron-size parts. The different between this method and other AM methods is its high dimensional accuracy and good surface finish of produced parts. The aim of this project is reaching the smallest part dimensions with available setup and choosing right resin. In this research, appropriate parameters for making micron parts are found and with this parameters, control have been made on the reaction between polymer and light. By designing benchmark parts which has geometric properties in micron dimensions, minimum reachable size of channels with 66.9 micron width and walls with 67.7 micron thickness have been achieved. By using the result of this parts, molds for producing microfluidic chips are then designed and fabricated. These molds have been tested using PDMS and produced chips have successfully passed color injection test. The outcome of these experiments, proved the ability of stereolithography as a no expensive method for producing these chips. Keywords: Additive manufacturing process, Benchmark, Microfluidic chip, Micro sized part, Stereolithography
