Polymer microfabrication technologies for microfluidic systems

Abstract

Polymers have assumed the leading role as substrate materials for microfluidic devices in recent years. They offer a broad range of material parameters as well as material and surface chemical properties which enable microscopic design features that cannot be realised by any other class of materials. A similar range of fabrication technologies exist to generate microfluidic devices from these materials. This review will introduce the currently relevant microfabrication technologies such as replication methods like hot embossing, injection molding, microthermoforming and casting as well as photodefining methods like lithography and laser ablation for microfluidic systems and discuss academic and industrial considerations for their use. A section on back-end processing completes the overview.

Porous polymer particles—A comprehensive guide to synthesis, characterization, functionalization and applications

“…Recently, Weitz et al proposed a route to coat inner walls of PDMS devices with glass [181][182], thereby merging the easiness of soft lithography with the inertness of glass. Other studies exist in which pure glass [183] or organic polymers [184][185][186] are used instead of PDMS for the chip manufacture. In connection to these two mainstream microfluidic devices, a few other setups are also drawing the attention.…”

On importance of surface forces in a microfluidic fluidized bed

“…1. The microchannels from which the beds were formed were fabricated in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip by standard soft lithography techniques (Whitesides et al, 2001); this approach was used because of its relative simplicity, low cost and rapidity of manufacture (Becker and Gärtner, 2008). The cross-sectional dimensions of the microchannels were 400 × 175 μm , whilst the lengths were typically around 20 mm.…”

A novel process for continuous thermal embossing of large‐area nanopatterns onto polymer films

“…A reliable, fast, and low-cost process which has the potential to produce robust, homogeneous patterns on areas 0.1m 2 and larger is critical to success in these industries. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Many existing methods currently employed in the production of micropatterns are unsuitable for incorporation into a large area process. Research in areas such as thermal and UV light curing imprint lithography have yielded robust, defect free structures with a resolution as low as 10nm; however, these methods are limited to areas of tens of cm 2 or less.…”