EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE HOT EMBOSSING POLYMER MICROFLUIDIC CHIP

Experiments are used to study the fabrication of polymer microfluidic chip with hot embossing method. The pattern fidelity with respect to the process parameters is analyzed. Experiment results show that the relationship between the imprint temperature and the microchannel width is approximately exponential. However, the depth of micro channel isn＇t sensitive to the imprint temperature. When the imprint pressure is larger than 1 MPa and the imprint time is longer than 2 min, the increasing of imprint pressure and holding time has little impact on the microchannel width. So over long holding time is not needed in hot embossing. Based on the experiment analysis, a series of optimization process parameters is obtained and a fine microfluidic chip is fabricated. The electrophoresis separation experiment are used to verify the microfluidic chip performance after bonding. The results show that 100bp-ladder DNA sample can be separated in less than 5 min successfully.

HOT EMBOSSING METHODS FOR PLASTIC MICROCHANNEL FABRICATION

Fabrication of microchannels on polymethylmethacrylate （PMMA） substrates using novel microfabrication methods is demonstrated. The image of microchannels is transferred from a silicon master possessing the inverse image of the microchannel to a PMMA plate by using hot embossing methods. The silicon master is electrostatically bonded to a Pyrex 7740 glass wafer, which improves the device yield from about 20 devices to hundreds of devices per master. Effects of embossing temperature, pressure and time on the accuracy of replication are systematically studied using the orthogonal factorial design. According to the suggested experimental model, the time for the whole embossing procedure is shorten from about 20 min to 6 min, and the accuracy of replication is 99.3%. The reproducibility of the hot embossing method is evaluated using 10 channels on different microfluidic devices, with variations of 1.4 % in depth and 1.8% in width.

OPTIMUM DESIGN OF PROCESSING CONDITION AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF GRATING FABRICATION WITH HOT EMBOSSING LITHOGRAPHY

The cross-section profiles of polymer deformation in the hot embossing lithography process were studied by finite element method for various temperature, time and pressure. In order to successfully fabricate high-frequency grating lines, an optimal imprint condition was selected and the related experiments were carried out. The fabricated gratings were illuminated by the SEM image and AFM analysis, which agree well with the simulated results. Therefore, the finite element methods are helpful for a better comprehension of the polymer flow phenomena governing the pattern definition and the design of optimum processing conditions for successful grating fabrication.

Hot embossing of micro energy director for micro polymer fusion ultrasonic bonding

In order to use micro ultrasonic bonding technique to package polymer microfluidic chips, an auxiliary microstructure named micro energy director is designed and fabricated. The hot embossing process for PMMA （ polymethyl methacrylate） substrates with both concave micro channel and convex micro energy director for ultrasonic bonding is studied. The embossing processes with different embossing temperatures are simulated using Finite Element Method （FEM）. The optimized parameters are： the embossing temperature of 135 ℃ , holding time of 200 s, and the embossing pressure of 1.65 MPa. The experimental results show that the replication error between experiments and simulations is less than 2% and the replication accuracy of the microstrueture is more than 96%. The study offers a method for quick optimizing parameters for hot embossing both concave and convex microstructures.

PRESSURE FORCE CONTROL FOR FABRICATION OF PLASTIC MICROFLUIDIC CHIPS WITH HOT EMBOSSING METHOD

A pressure force control system for hot embossing of microfluidic chips is designed with a moment motor and a ball bearing lead screw. Based on the numeric PID technique, the algorithm of pulsant integral accelerated PID control is presented and the negative effects of nonlinearity from friction, clearance and saturation are eliminated. In order to improve the quick-resixmse characteristic, independent thread technique is adopted. The method of pressure force control based on pulsant integral accelerated PID control and independent thread technique is applied with satisfactory control performance.

Hot-embossing fabrication of chalcogenide glasses rib waveguide for mid-infrared molecular sensing

Chalcogenide glasses have shown promise in fabricating mid infrared（MIR） photonic sensing devices due to their excellent optical properties in MIR. In addition, the glass transition temperature of chalcogenide glasses are generally low,making them ideal to create the high-throughput patterns of micro-scale structures based on hot embossing that is alternative to the standard lithographic technology. In this paper, we outline the research progress in the chalcogenide waveguide based on the hot embossing method, and discuss the problems remaining to be solved and the possible solutions.

A novel method to mass-produce PDMS stamps based on nanoimprint

Soft lithography is a low-cost and convenient method for the forming and manufacturing of micro/ nanostructures compared to the traditional optical lithography. In soft lithography, poly（dimethylsiloxane） （PDMS） stamps with relief structures have been widely used to transfer patterns. The traditional fabrication approach of PDMS stamps is time-consuming since the master has been occupied during the curing process. By adding and repeating fast nanoimprint step, many intermediate polymeric molds can be produced from the master and these molds can then be employed to replicate more PDMS stamps while the time used is close to that of the common way. We demonstrated this idea by three masters which were made by the DEM （Deepetching, Electroforming and Microreplicating） and FIB （Focused Ion Beam） techniques. The photos show that the patterns on the PMDS stamps successfully duplicated patterns on the origin masters.