Collapse-free thermal bonding technique for large area microchambers in plastic lab-on-a-chip applications |
| |
Authors: | Dong Sung Kim Hyun Sup Lee Jungyoup Han Se Hwan Lee Chong H. Ahn Tai Hun Kwon |
| |
Affiliation: | (1) School of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang University, 221 Heukseok-dong Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 156-756, South Korea;(2) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), San 31 Hyoja-Dong Nam-Gu, Pohang, 790-784, South Korea;(3) MicroSystems and BioMEMS Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210030, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0030, USA |
| |
Abstract: | Bonding is an essential step to form microchannels or microchambers in lab-on-a-chip applications. In this paper, we present a novel plastic thermal bonding technique to seal and form large area microchambers (planar characteristic width and length on the order of 1 mm and characteristic thickness on the order of 10–100 μm) without collapse by introducing a holed pressure equalizing plate (HPEP) that includes holes of the same size and shape as the microchambers. To demonstrate the proposed technique, two types of large area microchambers [(1) 20 × 10 mm and 40 μm thick and (2) 12 × 2.5 mm and 120 μm thick] with microchannels were designed and replicated on plastic substrates by means of hot embossing and injection molding processes with prepared two nickel mold inserts. The replicated large area microchambers as well as the microchannels in the plastic lab-on-a-chip were successfully sealed (i.e., no leakage) and formed without any collapse by the proposed thermal bonding technique with the help of the HPEP. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|