Microfluidic components

Basic components Challenges in system integration

• Channels • Compatibility
• Pumps • Packaging
• Valves • Interconnects
• Mixers • Leakage
• Flow sensors • Bubble free operation
• Pressure sensors • Dead volumes
 Materials for fabrication

Main materials Criteria for material selection

• Silicon • Micromachinability

• Glass • Surface properties

• Polymers • Molecular adsorption

• Paper • Optical properties

• Metal • Cost
• Durability
 Materials for fabrication

• Silicon - for special applications Direct fabrication

• Glass - when organic solvents or high • Bulk micromachining
• Surface micromachining
temperatures are used
Industry
trends
Polymers Replication
• Fabricate a mold
• Thermoplastics (e.g. PMMA, PS)- general high
• Fill the mold with polymer
volume production trend for disposable chips • Harden the polymer
• Demold the piece
• Elastomeric polymers (e.g. PDMS) - for research
applications, quick turnaround with rapid
prototyping
• Paper – especially for simple, low-cost
applications
 Si microfabrication

• Requires advanced fabrication devices, cleanroom

• Costs are very high especially for low volumes.
• Mostly works for planar structures
• Physical and optical properties are not favorable for most applications
 Glass microfabrication

• Chemically resistive and optically transparent

• The devices can be reused
• Low autoflorescence
• Can be achieved with standard micromachining

• Fragile
• Very costly
 Typical Glass fabrication

• Wet etching is the standard method. Standard

microfabrication steps are used (deposition and patterning
of a mask layer, etching, removal of the mask)
• Ultrasonic drilling of access holes into the cover plate
before bonding
• Thermal bonding of glass cover plate to seal
microchannels
• (optional) Attachment of capillaries into the chip Caliper Life Sciences
reservoirs
• (optional) Coating of glass channel walls
 Polymers

• Very cost effective

• No need for cleanroom Advantages
• Batch manufacturing

• Dimensional stability might be an issue

Disadvantages
• Autofluorescence can be problematic

• Casting (lithography)
Methods • Hot embossing
• Injection molding
 Typical Polymer fabrication

Casting
Unpolymerized compound is poured into mold
and allowed to polymerize

Hot embossing
Molding compound is introduced into an open
mold and formed under heat and pressure

Injection molding
Heat-softened plastic resin is forced into a
mold cavity by high pressure
 A quick comparison

DOI: 10.1039/c1lc20514e
Rapid prototyping polymers for microfluidic devices and high pressure
injections
 Casting

“Soft lithography”
• Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is the
elastomer of choice
• PDMS is poured into mold and allowed to
cure at raised temperature
Fluidigm
• Once cured, polymer is peeled off stamp
• Bonding may be done using simple
conformal contact to plastics,
glass, or reaction between two PDMS layers
• Multilayer structures are possible

Unger, Quake
Rapid Prototyping
 Soft-lithography

UV exposure system
Dehydration of silicon wafer

Spin coater

Post-exposure baking
 Hot embossing

• Hard plastic sheet is stamped in a

hydraulic press
• P maintained for minutes,
T just above Tg to soften plastic

Mold: silicon stamp or metal electroform

UT Arlington
 Injection Molding

• The master is inserted into mold insert

(silicon or glass masters are used)
• Molten thermoplastic polymer injected into
warm mold at high T and P
• Once part cools and solidifies, mold is
opened and part is ejected Lilliput® Chip, Germany
• Small features and low aspect ratios easy;
high aspect ratios harder

Gyros AB, Sweden

http://www.gyros.com/en/technology/immunoassays/index.html
3D printing
 3D printing

Various 3D-printing techniques. (A) Stereolithography (SL); (B)

multi jet modeling (MJM); (C) fused deposition modeling (FDM), also
termed “thermoplastic extrusion”.

Albert Folch et. al. “The upcoming 3D-printing revolution in microfluidics,” Lab on a Chip, v. 16,
p. 1720, 2016. DOI: 10.1039/c6lc00163g