Fabrication of Pneumatic Microvalve for Tall Microchannel Using Inclined Lithography

We used inclined lithography to fabricate a pneumatic microvalve for tall microchannels such as those used to convey large cells. The pneumatic microvalve consists of three layers. The upper layer is the actual liquid microchannel, which has a parallelogram-shaped cross section of width 500 μm, height 100 μm, and an acute angle of 53.6°. The lower layer is a pneumatic microchannel that functions as an actuator, and the middle layer is a thin polydimethylsiloxane membrane between the upper and lower layers. The operation of the pneumatic microchannel actuator causes the thin membrane to bend, resulting in the bending of the liquid microchannel and its closure. It was confirmed that the closure of the liquid microchannel completely stopped the flow of the HeLa cell suspension that was used to demonstrate the operation of the microvalve. The HeLa cells that passed through the microchannel were also observed to retain their proliferation and morphological properties.