Abstract
For four decades, microfluidics technology has been used in exciting, state-of-the-art applications. This paper reports on a novel fabrication approach in which micromachining is used to create nonplanar, three-dimensional microfluidic chips for experiments. Several parameters of micromachining were examined to enhance the smoothness and definition of surface contours in the nonplanar poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) mold inserts. A nonplanar PMMA/PMMA chip and a nonplanar polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/PMMA chip were fabricated to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach. In the first case, a S-shape microchannel was fabricated on the nonplanar PMMA substrate and sealed with another nonplanar PMMA via solvent bonding. In the second case, a PDMS membrane was casted from two nonplanar PMMA substrates and bonded on hemispherical PMMA substrate via solvent bonding for use as a microlens array (MLAs). These examples demonstrate the effectiveness of micromachining in the fabrication of nonplanar microfluidic chips directly on a polymeric substrate, as well as in the manufacture of nonplanar mold inserts for use in creating PDMS/PMMA microfluidic chips. This technique facilitates the creation of nonplanar microfluidic chips for applications requiring a three-dimensional space for in vitro characterization.
Highlights
Microfluidic technology has been steadily progressing since micro-gas chromatograph was first reported in 1979 [1]
The crucial step involves the use of micromachining to fabricate nonplanar poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) mold inserts
Several cutting parameters were adjusted to achieve smooth and well-defined surface contours. The efficacy of this fabrication process was demonstrated through the fabrication of a nonplanar PMMA/PMMA chip and a nonplanar PDMS/PMMA chip
Summary
Microfluidic technology has been steadily progressing since micro-gas chromatograph was first reported in 1979 [1]. The soft lithography technique reported in [2] greatly facilitated the fabrication of microfluidic chips, thereby prompting researchers from a variety of backgrounds to use microfluidics in interesting new applications [3]. Gong et al [15] used a stereolithographic (digital light processing (DLP)-stereolithography (SLA)) 3D printer to fabricate a microfluidic chip with a cross-section of only 18 × 20 μm In that study, they introduced a mathematical model to assist in the selection of appropriate resins for high-resolution printing. Our objective in the current study was to use micromachining to create nonplanar microfluidic devices with the aim of gaining insight into the fabrication of 3D microfluidic chips of greater complexity for various applications. Our objective in using different combinations of cutting parameters was Micromachines 2018, 9, 491
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