Fabrication of lab-on chip platforms by hot embossing and photo patterning

In this paper, we review the approaches developed in our laboratory to fabricate polymer-based microfluidic devices to suit a range of applications in bio- or chemical analysis. Thermoplastic materials such as polycarbonate (PC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) are used to fabricate microfluidic devices via hot embossing. To emboss microchannels, we use hard stamps fabricated in silicon or soft stamps molded on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). Hard stamps are fabricated on silicon wafers through photolithography and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE). Soft stamps are fabricated by casting PDMS prepolymer on silicon molds. To enclose the fluidic channels, direct fusion bonding was found to produce the highest bond strength with minimal structural deformation. One-step photolithographic methods have also been explored to produce via photochemical patterning microfluidic structures in photocurable materials. We use the photocurable capabilities of a PDMS copolymer, which incorporates a methacrylate crosslinker. Microfluidic channels are produced via one step-photopatterning processes by crosslinking the prepolymer mixture through a photomask. The smaller feature size attainable was 100 microm. Structures with higher spatial resolution are fabricated through a photoimprinting process whereby a mold is pressed against the precured mixture during UV crosslinking exposure. The application of the fabricated fluidic devices in electrophoretic ion analysis is also presented.