Control of bio-MEMS surface chemical properties in micro fluidic devices for biological applications

Surface chemistry of silicon/glass based bio-MEMS was controlled by depositing plasma polymerized acrylic acid (ppAc) films at two different electrode positions in a two-stage plasma reactor. AFM and XPS were used to characterize the surface roughness and surface chemistry of the films, respectively. The surface of bio-MEMS was highly functionalized with carboxylic/ester functionalities with a very good surface uniformity. The proportion of carbon atoms as C-OX, C(==O)OX functionalities was decreased and an increase in C==O functionalities was observed when the electrode position was increased from the mesh. These functionalized bio-MEMS devices have advantages in fabrication of reusable micro fluidic devices and the variation of fluid velocity by changing the surface properties may be used to develop a micro-mixing system to control the mixing ratio of different fluids for different biological and chemical applications.