A Novel Room-Temperature Bonding Method Based on Electrohydrodynamic Printing

Microfluidic chips made by traditional materials (glass and silicon) are still important for fluorescence tests, biocompatible experiments, and high temperature applications. However, the majority of the present bonding methods suffer from ultra-clean requirement, complicated fabrication process, and low production efficiency. In the present work, an Electrohydrodynamic printing assist bonding method was proposed. By this method, the ultraviolet-cured-glue dots were printed onto the silicon substrate, and then the patterned glass and silicon substrate can be bonded together at room temperature. The influence of printing condition (nozzle inner-diameter, applied voltage, printing height, and flow rate) on the diameter of printed dot was analyzed by experiments. By the optimized printing condition, the glass-silicon microfluidic chip can be well bonded. The bonding strength and leakage test demonstrated the high bonding quality of the microfluidic chip (bonding strength of 28 MPa and leakage pressure of 3.5 MPa).