Depressurised reservoirs for portable fluid extraction in SU-8-based microfluidic systems

• Published in: Micro & nano letters Vol. 9; no. 11; pp. 821 - 824
• Main Authors: Aracil, Carmen, Perdigones, Francisco, Moreno, J. Miguel, Luque, Antonio, Flores, Guadalupe, Quero, José Manuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 01.11.2014
• Subjects: actuation system; Chambers; Construction; depressurisation method; depressurised reservoirs; external pumps; Extraction; Fluids; lab‐on‐a‐chip; microfluidic SU‐8 lab‐on‐a‐chip; Microfluidics; pneumatic energy reservoirs; pneumatic systems; Portability; portable fluid extraction; Pumps; Reservoirs; SU‐8 chambers; portable fluid extraction; SU-8 chambers; microfluidic SU-8 lab-on-a-chip; pneumatic systems; depressurised reservoirs; lab-on-a-chip; external pumps; pneumatic energy reservoirs; depressurisation method; actuation system; microfluidics
• ISSN: 1750-0443; 1750-0443
• DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2014.0481

A depressurisation method to build SU-8 chambers as pneumatic energy reservoirs is described. The method consists in a combination of injection/extraction of uncrosslinked SU-8 and its exposure in different steps, intended to set the pressure of a chamber below atmospheric. These chambers are intended to be integrated with an actuation system to perform the extraction of fluids from the outside to the inside of a microfluidic SU-8 lab-on-a-chip. This method improves the portability of the platform because external pumps used to impulse the fluids can be avoided.