A microfluidic chip with an integrated planar microcoil was developed for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy on samples with volumes of less than a microliter. Real-time monitoring of imine formation from benzaldehyde and aniline in the microreactor chip by NMR was demonstrated. The reaction times in the chip can be set from 30 min down to ca. 2 s, the latter being the mixing time in the microfluidic chip. Design rules will be described to optimize the microreactor and detection coil in order to deal with the inherent sensitivity of NMR and to minimize magnetic field inhomogeneities and obtain sufficient spectral resolution.

The fabrication and characterization of a microfluidic device for capillary electrophoresis applications is presented. The device consists of a glass chip which contains a single separation channel as well as an integrated conductivity detection cell. In contrast to most microfluidic glass devices the channels are not wet etched in HF but machined by the newly developed micro powder-blasting technique which allows the creation of microstructures below 100 µm, and additionally makes parallel hole machining at very low costs outside the cleanroom environment possible [1,2]. The integration of the conductivity detector was achieved by leading two thin-film metal electrodes inside the separation channel. For rapid sample injection the chip is mounted inside an autosampler-based capillary electrophoresis platform. The detection electrodes for conductivity detection are read out by lock-in amplifier electronics. First measurements show the successful separation of various ions in the sub-millimeter range.

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Powder blasting, or abrasive jet machining (AJM), is a technique in which a particle jet is directed towards a target for mechanical material removal. It is a fast, cheap and accurate directional etch technique for brittle materials such as glass, silicon and ceramics. The particle jet (which expands to about 1 cm in diameter) can be optimized for etching, while the mask defines the small and complex structures. The quality of the mask influences the performance of powder blasting. In this study we tested and compared several mask types and added a new one: electroplated copper. The latter combines a highly resistant mask material for powder blasting with the high-resolution capabilities of lithography, which makes it possible to obtain an accurate pattern transfer and small feature sizes (<50 µm).