Abstract
Microfluidics, one of the most attractive and fastest developed areas of modern science and technology, has found a number of applications in medicine, biology and chemistry. To address advanced designing challenges of the microfluidic devices, the research is mainly focused on development of efficient, low-cost and rapid fabrication technology with the wide range of applications. For the first time, this paper presents fabrication of microfluidic chips using hybrid fabrication technology—a grouping of the PVC (polyvinyl chloride) foils and the LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics) Ceram Tape using a combination of a cost-effective xurography technique and a laser micromachining process. Optical and dielectric properties were determined for the fabricated microfluidic chips. A mechanical characterization of the Ceram Tape, as a middle layer in its non-baked condition, has been performed and Young’s modulus and hardness were determined. The obtained results confirm a good potential of the proposed technology for rapid fabrication of low-cost microfluidic chips with high reliability and reproducibility. The conducted microfluidic tests demonstrated that presented microfluidic chips can resist 3000 times higher flow rates than the chips manufactured using standard xurography technique.
Highlights
Micro and nano-fluidics represent the most progressive areas of modern science and technology, due to a wide range of applications in many fields of our life such as medicine, biology, chemistry, engineering or environmental protection [1]
We present a solution for the rapid prototyping of microfluidic chips using a combination of laser micromachining and xurographic technique, without using expensive clean-room facility
Light transmittance of the proposed microfluidic chips was measured in the wavelength range from
Summary
Micro and nano-fluidics represent the most progressive areas of modern science and technology, due to a wide range of applications in many fields of our life such as medicine, biology, chemistry, engineering or environmental protection [1]. To mention some of them, most frequently applied technologies are: PDMS (PolyDiMethylSiloxane), LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic), 3D printing, or xurographic technique. PDMS polymer has many advantages for fabrication of microfluidic chip such as biocompatibility, optical transparency (in the range 240–1100 nm) and mechanical flexibility and stretchability [2]. These properties have opened new fields of application for PDMS-based microfluidic chips for creation of organs-on-chips [3], or point-of-care diagnostics [4]. Authors suggested some unconventional techniques, for instance, using lubricant-infused
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