title: Fabrication of plastic microchips by hot embossing.
abstract: Plastic microchips with microchannels (100 microm wide, 40 microm deep) of varying designs have been fabricated in polymethylmethacrylate by a hot embossing process using an electroform tool produced starting with silicon chip masters. Hot-embossed chips were capped with a polymethylmethacrylate top using a proprietary solvent bonding process. Holes were drilled through the top of the chip to allow access to the channels. The chips were tested with fluid and shown to fill easily. The seal between the top of the chip and the hot embossed base was effective, and there was no leakage from the channels when fluid was pumped through the microchannels. The chips were also tested with a semen sample and the plastic chip performed identically to the previous silicon-glass and glass versions of the chip. This microfabrication technique offers a viable and potentially high-volume low cost production method for fabricating transparent microchips for analytical applications.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Larry J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Kricka
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fortina
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Panaro
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wilding
authors.forename: Goretty
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alonso-Amigo
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Becker
mesh_terms: D006358:Hot Temperature; D008904:Miniaturization; D010969:Plastics
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics