Micro hot embossing of thermoplastic polymers: a review

We present a sustainable fabrication method for cheap point-of-care microfluidic systems, employing hot embossing of natural shellac as a key feature of an energyefficient fabrication method that exclusively uses renewable materials as consumables. Shellac is a low-cost renewable biomaterial that features medium hydrophilicity (e.g., a water contact angle of ca. 73 ) and a high chemical stability with respect to common solvents such as cyclohexane or toluene, rendering it an interesting candidate for low-cost microfluidics and a competitor to well-known systems such as paperbased or polydimethylsiloxane-based microfluidics. Moreover, its high replication accuracy for small features down to 30 lm lateral feature size and its ability to form smooth surfaces (surface roughness R a ¼ 29 nm) at low embossing temperatures (glass transition temperature T g ¼ 42.2 C) enable energy-efficient hot embossing of microfluidic structures. Proof-of-concept for the implementation of shellac hot embossing as a green fabrication method for microfluidic systems is demonstrated through the successful fabrication of a microfluidic test setup and the assessment of its resource consumption. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx

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“…22 For materials with low glass transition temperatures, this process enables fast processing using little energy.…”

Section: Shellac As a Thermoplastic Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing natural thermoplastic shellac to microfluidics: A green fabrication method for point-of-care devices

et al. 2016

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“…In particular, during the last 10 years, these replication methods have contributed to the large progress in microand nanofabrication fields. 2,10,11 The elastomer polyĲdimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) has become one of the most widely used materials in the development of microfluidic devices in academic environments. 1,3,8,12 The popularity of PDMS materials originates from a number of factors, most importantly, the relatively cheap and easy prototyping of small numbers of devices with soft lithography using master molds for structure replication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roll-to-roll fabrication of integrated PDMS–paper microfluidics for nucleic acid amplification

et al. 2018

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bcde Microfluidic-based integrated molecular diagnostic systems, which are automated, sensitive, specific, userfriendly, robust, rapid, easy-to-use, and portable, can revolutionize future medicine. Current research and development largely relies on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to fabricate microfluidic devices. Since the transition from the proof-of-principle phase to clinical studies requires a vast number of integrated microfluidic devices, there is a need for a high-volume manufacturing method of silicone-based microfluidics. Here we present the first roll-to-roll (R2R) thermal imprinting method to fabricate integrated PDMS-paper microfluidics for molecular diagnostics, which allows production of tens of thousands of replicates in an hour. In order to validate the replicated molecular diagnostic platforms, on-chip amplification of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) was demonstrated. These low-cost, rapid and accurate molecular diagnostic platforms will generate a wide range of applications in preventive personalized medicine, global healthcare, agriculture, food, environment, water monitoring, and global biosecurity.

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“…8 Current research in integrated optics and photonics focuses on the fabrication of embedded systems in thin polymer foils including waveguides as well as illumination and sensing elements. 9 Such structures are commonly fabricated by means of hot-embossing processes for microstructuring of substrate layers 10,11 with the claimed benefit that the processes can be upscaled to a roll-to-roll approach. Usually, to obtain embedded waveguides, a trench is created in a substrate in an initial embossing process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing of embedded multimode waveguides by reactive lamination of cyclic olefin polymer and polymethylmethacrylate

Kelb

Rother²,

Schuler³

et al. 2016

Opt. Eng

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Abstract. We demonstrate the manufacturing of embedded multimode optical waveguides through linking of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) foils and cyclic olefin polymer (COP) filaments based on a lamination process. Since the two polymeric materials cannot be fused together through interdiffusion of polymer chains, we utilize a reactive lamination agent based on PMMA copolymers containing photoreactive 2-acryloyloxyanthraquinone units, which allows the creation of monolithic PMMA-COP substrates through C-H insertion reactions across the interface between the two materials. We elucidate the lamination process and evaluate the chemical link between filament and foils by carrying out extraction tests with a custom-built tensile testing machine. We also show attenuation measurements of the manufactured waveguides for different manufacturing parameters. The lamination process is in particular suited for large-scale and low-cost fabrication of board-level devices with optical waveguides or other micro-optical structures, e.g., optofluidic devices.

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Micro hot embossing of thermoplastic polymers: a review

Cited by 202 publications

References 180 publications

Introducing natural thermoplastic shellac to microfluidics: A green fabrication method for point-of-care devices

Introducing natural thermoplastic shellac to microfluidics: A green fabrication method for point-of-care devices

Roll-to-roll fabrication of integrated PDMS–paper microfluidics for nucleic acid amplification

Manufacturing of embedded multimode waveguides by reactive lamination of cyclic olefin polymer and polymethylmethacrylate

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