Mask-free laser lithography for rapid and low-cost microfluidic device fabrication
File(s)Trantidou Friddin.pdf (812.14 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Microfluidics has become recognized as a powerful platform technology associated with a constantly increasing array of applications across the life sciences. This surge of interest over recent years has led to an increased demand for microfluidic chips, resulting in more time being spent in the cleanroom fabricating devices using soft lithography—a slow and expensive process that requires extensive materials, training and significant engineering resources. This bottleneck limits platform complexity as a byproduct of lengthy delays between device iterations and affects the time spent developing the final application. To address this problem, we report a new, rapid, and economical approach to microfluidic device fabrication using dry resist films to laminate laser cut sheets of acrylic. We term our method laser lithography and show that our technique can be used to engineer 200 μm width channels for assembling droplet generators capable of generating monodisperse water droplets in oil and micromixers designed to sustain chemical reactions. Our devices offer high transparency, negligible device to device variation, and low X-ray background scattering, demonstrating their suitability for real-time X-ray-based characterization applications. Our approach also requires minimal materials and apparatus, is cleanroom free, and at a cost of around $1.00 per chip could significantly democratize device fabrication, thereby increasing the interdisciplinary accessibility of microfluidics.
Date Issued
2018-12-04
Date Acceptance
2018-11-05
Citation
Analytical Chemistry, 2018, 90 (23), pp.13915-13921
ISSN
0003-2700
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Start Page
13915
End Page
13921
Journal / Book Title
Analytical Chemistry
Volume
90
Issue
23
Copyright Statement
Published by American Chemical Society. Copyright © American Chemical Society.
However, no copyright claim is made to original U.S. Government works, or works
produced by employees of any Commonwealth realm Crown government in the course
of their duties.
However, no copyright claim is made to original U.S. Government works, or works
produced by employees of any Commonwealth realm Crown government in the course
of their duties.
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant Number
EP/J017566/1
EP/K038648/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Chemistry, Analytical
Chemistry
DRY FILM PHOTORESIST
X-RAY
ADSORPTION
CHIP
0301 Analytical Chemistry
0904 Chemical Engineering
0399 Other Chemical Sciences
Analytical Chemistry
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-11-05