Abstract
Electroformed microfluidic chip mold faces the problem of uneven thickness, which decreases the dimensional accuracy of the mold, and increases the production cost. To fabricate a mold with uniform thickness, two methods are investigated. Firstly, experiments are carried out to study how the ultrasonic agitation affects the thickness uniformity of the mold. It is found that the thickness uniformity is maximally improved by about 30% after 2 h electroforming under 200 kHz and 500 W ultrasonic agitation. Secondly, adding a second cathode, a method suitable for long-time electroforming is studied by numerical simulation. The simulation results show that with a 4 mm width second cathode used, the thickness uniformity is improved by about 30% after 2 h of electroforming, and that with electroforming time extended, the thickness uniformity is improved more obviously. After 22 h electroforming, the thickness uniformity is increased by about 45%. Finally, by comparing two methods, the method of adding a second cathode is chosen, and a microfluidic chip mold is made with the help of a specially designed second cathode. The result shows that the thickness uniformity of the mold is increased by about 50%, which is in good agreement with the simulation results.
Highlights
The microfluidic chip is more and more widely used in the biomedical field
With exertedduring duringthe theelectroforming electroforming process, With ultrasonicagitation agitation oraasecond second cathode cathode exerted during the electroforming process, the thickness uniformity of the microfluidic chip mold is maximally improved by about after h of thickness uniformity of the microfluidic chip mold is maximally improved by about after thickness uniformity of the microfluidic chip mold is maximally improved by about 30% after 2 h of2 h electroforming
In order to investigate the effect of the designed second cathode on the thickness uniformity of ordertotoinvestigate investigate the the effect of cathode on on the the thickness uniformity of In In order of the thedesigned designedsecond second cathode thickness uniformity the mold, a mold fabricated by electroforming without a second cathode present is used as a the mold, a mold fabricated by electroforming without a second cathode present is used as a a of the mold, a mold fabricated by electroforming without a second cathode present is used as reference
Summary
The microfluidic chip is more and more widely used in the biomedical field. It has been applied to trace-substance detection in blood [1,2], infectious-disease-virus detection [3], and single-cell separation [4], etc. The thickness of the electroformed microfluidic chip mold fabricated by our research group is seriously uneven. They optimizing process parameters can only improve the thickness uniformity to a certain extent They have been used during the fabrication of the microfluidic chip mold by our research group. Some studies have shown that ultrasonic agitation can improve the the thickness uniformity of the mold. Few studies on improving the thickness uniformity of the electroformed microfluidic chip mold. There are few studies on improving the thickness uniformity of the electroformedby using ultrasonic agitation or using a second cathode. In this paper, the and second cathode on the thickness uniformity chip moldofisthe investigated tochip find a effect of ultrasonic agitation and second cathodeofonthe themicrofluidic thickness uniformity microfluidic new method to fabricate mold with uniform thickness.
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