University of Minnesota, Department of Chemistry, 207 Pleasant St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Analyst. 2013 Oct 7;138(19):5791-800. doi: 10.1039/c3an00671a.
Two different fabrication methods were employed to fabricate micropumps with different cross-sectional channel geometries. The first was to fabricate rectangular cross-sectional microchannel geometries using the well known fabrication method of replica molding (REM). The second, and far less utilized fabrication technique, was to create microchannel molds using an in-house fabricated handheld micro injection molding apparatus. The injection mold apparatus was designed for use with elastomeric room temperature vulcanization (RTV) polymers, as opposed to most other injection molding machines, which are designed for use with thermoplastic polymers. The injection mold's bottom plate was used as a microchannel molding template. The molding template was created by threading a small-diameter wire (150 μm or less) through the injection mold's bottom plate, with subsequent adhesion and smoothing of a thin piece of aluminum foil over the wire-raised injection mold template. When molded against, the template produced a rounded/Gaussian-shaped PDMS microchannel. The design of the injection mold will be presented, along with a direct comparison for micropump performance metrics such as flow rate, valving characteristics, and maximum backpressures attainable for each of the respective micropump channel geometries.
采用两种不同的制造方法制造具有不同横截面通道几何形状的微泵。第一种方法是使用众所周知的复制成型（REM）制造方法制造矩形横截面微通道几何形状。第二种，也是利用较少的制造技术，是使用内部制造的手持式微注塑成型设备创建微通道模具。注塑模具设计用于弹性室温硫化（RTV）聚合物，而不是大多数其他注塑机，后者设计用于热塑性聚合物。注塑模具的底板用作微通道成型模板。成型模板是通过将小直径的线（150 μm 或更小）穿过注塑模具的底板，随后在电线凸起的注塑模具模板上粘附和抹平一小片铝箔来制造的。当与模具成型时，该模板会产生圆形/高斯形状的 PDMS 微通道。将介绍注塑模具的设计，并直接比较每种微泵通道几何形状的微泵性能指标，例如流量、阀特性和可达到的最大背压。
