Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Lab Chip. 2013 Mar 21;13(6):1102-8. doi: 10.1039/c2lc41057e.
A unique technique for the rapid fabrication of thermoplastic microfluidic chips is described. The method enables the realization of fully-sealed microchannels in around one hour while requiring only minimal infrastructure by taking advantage of a solvent swelling mechanism that allows raised features to be patterned on the surface of homogeneous thermoplastic materials. Patterning is achieved without photolithography by simply drawing the desired microchannel pattern onto the polymer surface using a suitable ink as a masking layer, either manually or under robotic control, followed by timed exposure to solvent vapor to yield a desired depth for the masked channel features. The channels are then permanently sealed through solvent bonding of the microchannel chip to a mating thermoplastic substrate. The process is demonstrated using cyclic olefin copolymer as a thermoplastic material, with fully operational microfluidic devices fabricated following a true desktop manufacturing model suitable for rapid prototyping.
描述了一种用于快速制造热塑性微流控芯片的独特技术。该方法利用溶剂溶胀机制，仅需最小的基础设施，即可在大约一个小时内实现完全密封的微通道，该机制允许在均匀的热塑性材料表面上对凸起特征进行图案化。通过简单地使用合适的油墨作为掩模层在聚合物表面上绘制所需的微通道图案，无需光刻即可进行图案化，无论是手动还是在机器人控制下，然后定时暴露于溶剂蒸气中，以获得所需的掩模通道特征深度。然后通过将微通道芯片与配合的热塑性基板进行溶剂键合来永久密封通道。该过程使用环烯烃共聚物作为热塑性材料进行了演示，并且在真正适合快速原型制作的台式制造模型之后制造了完全可操作的微流控设备。
