Abstract

Bonding of Hemogeneous/Hetergeneous Materials for Microfluidics

Pin Chuan Chen, Associate Professor, National Taiwan University Of Science And Technology

Thermoplastics are an important material in the fabrication of microfluidic chips due to the maturity of the manufacturing processes, such as injection molding and roller printing. Following the formation of thermoplastic microfluidic chips, open microchannels must be sealed by bonding another piece of substrate material over the channels as a cover. In the selection of an appropriate bonding method, issues related to bonding strength, stress at the interface, fidelity of the microchannels, solvent compatibility, surface chemistry, and the optical properties of the bonded microfluidic chip must be taken into account. A bonding method was proposed in this study to assemble either homogeneous or heterogeneous substrate material for microfluidic chip. With this method, the thermoplastic microfluidic chip can be bonded within few minutes with an excellent bonding strength.