Fabrication of all glass microfluidic device with superior chemical and mechanical resistances by glass molding with vitreous carbon mold

Abstract

A glass microfluidic device with superior chemical and mechanical resistance was fabricated using a cost-effective glass molding process with a vitreous carbon (VC) mold, which was prepared by the carbonization of a replicated polymer precursor. For the development of microfluidic chips with dense microchannels on a large footprint, a defect-free VC mold is essential. In this study, a furan imprinting process, in which a patterned furan layer was imprinted (cured) on a polished furan plate, was established to minimize warpage and gas bubble defects. In addition, the proposed imprinting process markedly reduced the fabrication time of the furan precursor. For feasibility testing, a glass micromixer with a total channel length of 30.6 cm and footprint of 20 × 20 mm 2 was developed by glass molding with the VC mold and thermal fusion bonding. The fabricated glass-molded micromixer was durable at an internal pressure of ~24 MPa, and there was no swelling when used with toluene for an extended time.

Laser Pyrolysis of Imprinted Furan Pattern for the Precise Fabrication of Microsupercapacitor Electrodes

“…This approach can overcome the abovementioned limitations of laser direct writing patterning. To demonstrate the feasibility of this method, an interdigitated polymer micropattern was imprinted using a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold and a furan resin with a high carbon content (~40–50%) [ 31 , 32 ]. The imprinted furan pattern was then carbonized by raster scanning with a CO 2 laser.…”

Monolithic 3D micromixer with an impeller for glass microfluidic systems

“…Our device had a mixing channel length that is 180 μm longer than the 3D helical mixer investigated using the same process, but did not require processing of extra parts and achieved a 4% increase in mixing efficiency. 44 In addition, the proposed fabrication method does not require a high-temperature bonding process, 56,57 and provides throughput performance five times higher than the maximum flow rate previously reported. 58 Interestingly, the 3DI micromixer showed stable mixing as the impeller rotated faster at a high flow rate.…”

Fabrication of Cross-Sinusoidal Anti-Reflection Nanostructure on a Glass Substrate Using Imperfect Glass Imprinting with a Nano-Pin Array Vitreous Carbon Stamp

“…For the replication of the Furan precursor, the Furan imprinting method was applied to a Furan substrate to minimize the defects and processing time [19]. To fabricate Furan substrate, a mixture of Furan resin (KC-5302, Kangnam Chemical Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea), ethanol (Ethyl alcohol 99%; Duksan Co. Ltd., Ansan, Republic of Korea) and p-toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate (PTSA; Kanto Chemical Co. Inc., Tokyo, Japan) with a mixing ratio of 89.9:10:0.4 wt% was poured with a thickness of 8 mm into a 50 mm × 50 mm size PDMS template without patterns and degassing process was conducted at room temperature for 1 h in a vacuum chamber.…”

“…An Si master with a HAR NPA was fabricated via photolithography and RIE, and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) intermediate mold was replicated from the Si master ( Figure 1a). For the Furan imprinting process, a Furan substrate was obtained by bulk casting and back polishing processes ( Figure 1b,c, respectively) [19]. For the fabrication of a Furan precursor with a HAR NPA, a thermal imprinting process was carried out on the Furan substrate using the PDMS intermediate mold (Figure 1d).…”