Method of fabricating microfluidic structures for biomedical applications

• Main Authors: MACK PETER, KHALIL AHMAD S, BORENSTEIN JEFFREY T, GARCIA-CARDENA GUILLERMO, HSIAO JAMES CHING-MING, TAO SARAH L, WEINBERG ELI J, TUPPER MALINDA M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.09.2012
• Subjects: CASINGS OR CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS OF ELECTRIC APPARATUS; COMBINED OPERATIONS; ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; MACHINE TOOLS; MANUFACTURE OF ASSEMBLAGES OF ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS; MECHANICAL METAL-WORKING WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVINGMATERIAL; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; MICROSTRUCTURAL TECHNOLOGY; OTHER WORKING OF METAL; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PRINTED CIRCUITS; PROCESSES OR APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTUREOR TREATMENT OF MICROSTRUCTURAL DEVICES OR SYSTEMS; PUNCHING METAL; TRANSPORTING; UNIVERSAL MACHINE TOOLS; WORKING OR PROCESSING OF SHEET METAL OR METAL TUBES, RODS ORPROFILES WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVING MATERIAL

Methods of fabricating microfluidic structures featuring substantially circular channels are provided. The methods involve (a) providing a patterned wafer comprising at least one exposed electrically conductive region and at least one exposed electrically insulating region; (b) electroplating an inverse channel portion with substantially semicircular cross section onto the wafer, thereby forming a first master mold; (c) employing the first master mold so as to emboss a channel portion in a first polymer sheet; and (d) aligning and bonding the first polymer sheet with a second polymer sheet having a corresponding channel portion such as to define a first channel with substantially circular cross section between the polymer sheets.