Chen Xiaolei, Liu Li, He Junfeng, Zuo Fei, Guo Zhongning
School of Electro-mechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510016, China.
Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Nontraditional Machining and Equipment, Guangzhou 510006, China.
Micromachines (Basel). 2018 Apr 27;9(5):203. doi: 10.3390/mi9050203.
Microfluidic devices have been widely used for biomedical and biochemical applications. Due to its unique characteristics, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) show great potential in fabricating microfluidic devices. Hot embossing technology has established itself as a popular method of preparing polymer microfluidic devices in both academia and industry. However, the fabrication of the mold used in hot embossing is time-consuming in general and often impractical for economically efficient prototyping. This paper proposes a modified technology for preparing metal micro molds by using pulse micro electroforming directly on metallic substrate, which could save time and reduce costs. In this method, an additive was used to avoid surface defect on deposited nickel. A chemical etching process was performed on the metallic substrate before the electroforming process in order to improve the bonding strength between the deposited structure and substrate. Finally, with the aim of obtaining a metal micro mold with high surface quality (low surface roughness), an orthogonal experiment was designed and conducted to optimize the electroforming parameters. Additionally, metal micro molds with different structures were well prepared by using the optimized parameters.
微流控器件已广泛应用于生物医学和生物化学领域。聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯（PMMA）因其独特的特性，在制造微流控器件方面具有巨大潜力。热压印技术已成为学术界和工业界制备聚合物微流控器件的常用方法。然而，热压印中使用的模具制造通常耗时较长，对于经济高效的原型制作往往不切实际。本文提出了一种通过直接在金属基板上进行脉冲微电铸制备金属微模具的改进技术，该技术可以节省时间并降低成本。在该方法中，使用一种添加剂来避免沉积镍表面出现缺陷。在电铸工艺之前，对金属基板进行化学蚀刻处理，以提高沉积结构与基板之间的结合强度。最后，为了获得具有高表面质量（低表面粗糙度）的金属微模具，设计并进行了正交实验以优化电铸参数。此外，使用优化后的参数成功制备了具有不同结构的金属微模具。
