A polymeric master replication technology for mass fabrication of poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic devices.
A protocol of producing multiple polymeric masters from an original glass master mold has been developed, which enables the production of multiple poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)-based microfluidic devices in a low-cost and efficient manner. Standard wet-etching techniques were used to fabricate an original glass master with negative features, from which more than 50 polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) positive replica masters were rapidly created using the thermal printing technique. The time to replicate each PMMA master was as short as 20 min. The PMMA replica masters have excellent structural features and could be used to cast PDMS devices for many times. An integration geometry designed for laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection, which contains normal deep microfluidic channels and a much deeper optical fiber channel, was successfully transferred into PDMS devices. The positive relief on seven PMMA replica masters is replicated with regard to the negative original glass master, with a depth average variation of 0.89% for 26-microm deep microfluidic channels and 1.16% for the 90 mum deep fiber channel. The imprinted positive relief in PMMA from master-to-master is reproducible with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 1.06% for the maximum width and 0.46% for depth in terms of the separation channel. The PDMS devices fabricated from the PMMA replica masters were characterized and applied to the separation of a fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled epinephrine sample.
Li
Hai-Fang
HF
Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100 085, China.
Lin
Jin-Ming
JM
Su
Rong-Guo
RG
Cai
Zong Wei
ZW
Uchiyama
Katsumi
K
D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry*; D046209:Electrophoresis, Microchip / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009995:Osmosis; D012828:Silicones / Q000737:chemistry*
D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; D012828:Silicones; C013830:baysilon