Polycarbonate Masters for Soft Lithography.
TLDR
In this article, an optimized replica molding approach was proposed to preserve the original soft lithography masters by heat molding polycarbonate (PC) sheets on PDMS molds.Abstract:
Fabrication of microfluidic devices by soft lithography is by far the most popular approach due to its simplicity and low cost. The approach relies on casting of elastomers, such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), on masters fabricated from photoresists on silicon substrates. These masters, however, can be expensive, complicated to fabricate, and fragile. Here we describe an optimized replica molding approach to preserve the original masters by heat molding of polycarbonate (PC) sheets on PDMS molds. The process is faster and simpler than previously reported methods and does not result in a loss of resolution or aspect ratio for the features. The generated PC masters were used to successfully replicate a wide range of microfluidic devices, including rectangular channels with aspect ratios from 0.025 to 7.3, large area spiral channels, and micropost arrays with 5 µm spacing. Moreover, fabrication of rounded features, such as semi-spherical microwells, was possible and easy. Quantitative analysis of the replicated features showed variability of <2%. The approach is low cost, does not require cleanroom setting or hazardous chemicals, and is rapid and simple. The fabricated masters are rigid and survive numerous replication cycles. Moreover, damaged or missing masters can be easily replaced by reproduction from previously cast PDMS replicas. All of these advantages make the PC masters highly desirable for long-term preservation of soft lithography masters for microfluidic devices.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Non-small cell lung carcinoma spheroid models in agarose microwells for drug response studies.
Qiyue Luan,Jeffrey H. Becker,Celine Macaraniag,Malek G. Massad,Jian Zhou,Takeshi Shimamura,Ian Papautsky +6 more
TL;DR: 3D printing is leveraged to demonstrate a platform based on miniature microwells in agarose to culture cancer cell spheroids suitable for in vitro culture and drug evaluation, especially in cases when tumor sample is limited.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview
Yi Je Juang,Yu-Jui Chiu +1 more
TL;DR: In this article , the primary fabrication techniques for polymer microfluidics were reviewed and classified into two categories, e.g., mold-based and non-mold-based approaches.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Fabrication of microfluidic systems in poly(dimethylsiloxane)
J.C. McDonald,David C. Duffy,Janelle R. Anderson,Daniel T. Chiu,Hongkai Wu,Olivier Schueller,George M. Whitesides +6 more
TL;DR: Fabrication of microfluidic devices in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) by soft lithography provides faster, less expensive routes to devices that handle aqueous solutions.
Journal ArticleDOI
The autofluorescence of plastic materials and chips measured under laser irradiation
Aigars Piruska,Irena Nikcevic,Se Hwan Lee,Chong H. Ahn,William R. Heineman,Patrick A. Limbach,Carl J. Seliskar +6 more
TL;DR: Intrinsic optical constants of plastic materials-refractive index for bulk materials-determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry and transmission spectroscopy in the visible range are presented and overall, the longer wavelength laser excitation sources yielded less autofluorescence.
Journal ArticleDOI
Controlling Mammalian Cell Spreading and Cytoskeletal Arrangement with Conveniently Fabricated Continuous Wavy Features on Poly(dimethylsiloxane)
Xingyu Jiang,Shuichi Takayama,Xiangping Qian,Emanuele Ostuni,Hongkai Wu,Ned B. Bowden,Philip R. LeDuc,Donald E. Ingber,George M. Whitesides +8 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a simple and versatile technique for generating structures on the surfaces of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), approximately sinusoidal waves with periods between 0.1 and 10 μm, and the use of these structures to study cell contact guidance was reported.
Journal ArticleDOI
Microfluidic channel fabrication in dry film resist for production and prototyping of hybrid chips
Paul Vulto,Nicolas Glade,Luigi Altomare,Jacqueline Bablet,L. Del Tin,Gianni Medoro,Isabelle Chartier,Nicolò Manaresi,Marco Tartagni,Roberto Guerrieri +9 more
TL;DR: The dry film resist can be considered a cheap and fast alternative to SU-8 and is applied for dielectrophoresis-based cell separation systems and a fuel cell reaction chamber with micropillars.
Journal ArticleDOI
Direct, one-step molding of 3D-printed structures for convenient fabrication of truly 3D PDMS microfluidic chips
TL;DR: In this paper, a soft-lithographic-based molding technique was developed for molding truly 3D microfluidic channels in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) by overcoming two grand challenges.