OpenChip is a browser-based tool for designing microfluidic chips and exporting them as STL files for desktop resin (mSLA) printers, made for researchers who need a chip and do not use CAD.
Try it now at app.openchip.tech. It runs in the browser with no account and no install, and nothing you draw is uploaded.
- Start from a template or draw your own. Seven editable starters (serpentine, T-junction, Y-junction, herringbone and spiral mixers, a gradient generator and a flow-focusing droplet generator), or draw straight and curved channels and set widths that taper along a path. Ports come from a catalogue of Luer slip and Luer-lock sockets, male Luer cones, hose barbs and syringe sockets, or your own dimensions.
- Check it against your printer. Warnings for channels below the printer's minimum feature size, walls too thin between channels, features too close to the edge, trapped resin, unsupported overhangs and designs larger than the build volume. Every check is a warning; none blocks an export.
- Preview and export the solid. A 3D model built in the browser with manifold-3d, printed as two pieces (a channel plate and a lid), one sealed block, or an open plate capped with a glass slide. Export STL for printing, editable OpenSCAD source, SVG schematics, PNG snapshots and a presentation bundle.
- Estimate the flow. A one-dimensional network model gives pressure drop, Reynolds number, wall shear, residence time, heat exchange between neighbouring channels, and reagent use, with heatmaps.
- Save and share
.openchipfiles, plain JSON you can version alongside a paper, or describe a chip in plain English to an AI assistant with theopenchip-designskill and open the file it returns (npx skills add Jujified/OpenChip). OpenChip itself sends nothing anywhere.
The full documentation is at wiki.openchip.tech. Good places to start:
Open the Library tab and pick a template, or open
examples/counter-flow-exchanger.openchip
with Project → Open Project. Press ? anywhere for keyboard shortcuts, or
take the guided tour from Settings → Take the tour.
Your working design is kept in browser storage as a safety net. To keep a design
or move it between machines, save it as a .openchip file.
Requires Node 20.19 or newer.
git clone https://github.com/Jujified/OpenChip.git
cd OpenChip
npm install
npm run dev| Script | Does |
|---|---|
npm run dev |
Start the dev server |
npm run build |
Typecheck, then build static files into dist/ |
npm test |
Run the test suite |
npm run lint |
Lint with oxlint |
npm run typecheck |
Typecheck without emitting |
The build is plain static files, so any static host works. See ARCHITECTURE.md for how the editor, CAD engine, design checks and flow model are put together.
OpenChip is a design tool, not a guarantee. The design checks are geometric rules of thumb against a printer profile you enter, and resin, exposure and post-curing all move the result. Print a small test coupon before committing to a full chip. The flow estimates assume fully developed laminar flow and perfect mixing at junctions; they size a chip and catch an unusable design, but they are not a CFD simulation. Printed Luer fittings follow nominal ISO 80369-7 dimensions and are not certified connectors; do not use them in anything clinical.
If OpenChip designed a device that appears in your work, please cite the
software and the version you used. The DOI is
10.5281/zenodo.23461556, and GitHub's
Cite this repository button gives the details from
CITATION.cff.
@software{openchip,
title = {OpenChip: browser-based microfluidic chip design for resin printing},
author = {Cimoca, Julian},
year = {2026},
version = {1.0.0},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23461556},
url = {https://openchip.tech}
}- Flui3d (Zhang et al., Communications Engineering, 2024) is the closest relative: a web-based design platform for 3D-printed microfluidic chips. It builds devices from a parameterised component library, supports multi-layer designs, and corrects geometry for light penetration during printing. OpenChip instead draws freeform channel networks and focuses on printability checks, flow estimates and standard fittings, entirely client-side.
- 3DμF is an interactive design environment for continuous-flow microfluidic devices.
Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md. The documentation site and the website are maintained separately from this repository.
Created by Julian Cimoca (ORCID 0009-0009-8978-5337). Developed with AI coding assistance (Claude); design, direction and validation by the author.
The author collaborated with, and received advice from, mentor Walker MacSwain (ORCID 0000-0002-2671-2546), who also helped validate the software.
Released under the MIT License.