Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Lab Chip. 2012 Jan 21;12(2):391-5. doi: 10.1039/c1lc20721k. Epub 2011 Nov 17.
A major technical hurdle in microfluidics is the difficulty in achieving high fidelity lithographic patterning on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Here, we report a simple yet highly precise and repeatable PDMS surface micromachining method using direct photolithography followed by reactive ion etching (RIE). Our method to achieve surface patterning of PDMS applied an O(2) plasma treatment to PDMS to activate its surface to overcome the challenge of poor photoresist adhesion on PDMS for photolithography. Our photolithographic PDMS surface micromachining technique is compatible with conventional soft lithography techniques and other silicon-based surface and bulk micromachining methods. To illustrate the general application of our method, we demonstrated fabrication of large microfiltration membranes and free-standing beam structures in PDMS.
微流控技术中的一个主要技术障碍是难以在聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）上实现高保真度的光刻图案化。在这里，我们报告了一种简单但非常精确和可重复的 PDMS 表面微加工方法，该方法使用直接光刻和反应离子刻蚀（RIE）。我们实现 PDMS 表面图案化的方法是对 PDMS 进行 O(2)等离子体处理，以激活其表面，从而克服光刻中 PDMS 上光致抗蚀剂附着力差的挑战。我们的 PDMS 表面光刻微加工技术与传统的软光刻技术以及其他基于硅的表面和体微加工方法兼容。为了说明我们方法的一般应用，我们展示了在 PDMS 中制造大型微滤膜和自由 standing 梁结构的过程。
