title: Fabrication of three-dimensional helical microchannels with arbitrary length and uniform diameter inside fused silica.
abstract: We demonstrate an improved femtosecond laser irradiation followed by chemical etching process to create complex three-dimensional (3D) microchannels with arbitrary length and uniform diameter inside fused silica. A segmented chemical etching method of introducing extra access ports and a secondary power compensation is presented, which enables the fabrication of uniform 3D helical microchannels with length of 1.140 cm and aspect-ratio of 522. Based on this method, a micromixer which consists of a long helical microchannel and a y-tape microchannel was created inside the fused silica. We measured the mixing properties of the micromixer by injecting the phenolphthalein and NaOH solution through the two inlets of the y-tape microchannel. A rapid and efficient mixing was achieved in the 3D micromixer at a low Reynolds number.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, School of Electronics & Information Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Shengguan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Keyin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Hewei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Xiangwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: Jinhai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Si
authors.forename: Yulong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Xun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hou
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D017022:Flow Injection Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007834:Lasers; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*
chemical_list: D012822:Silicon Dioxide