Silicon based solvent immersion imprint lithography for rapid polystyrene microfluidic chip prototyping

Jingdong Chen, WenjieWang, Weibang Ji, Shaoding Liu, Qiushu Chen, Bimin Wu, Rhima Coleman and Xudong Fan

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical， Volume 248, 2017, Pages 311–317

Polystyrene (PS) is preferred over polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in microfluidicsfor applications in cell biology. However, PS has not found widespread use in microfluidicsdue mainly to the lack of rapid prototyping techniques. Here we address this issue by developing a silicon based solvent immersion imprint lithography (Si-SIIL) technique. Silicon is rigid,mechanically  robust, and highly compatible with standard microfabricationprocesses, and therefore, is a promising candidate for molds. Various PS microfluidicchannels as small as 20 μm in width with the aspect ratio as high as 5 were demonstrated using Si-SIIL. Bubbles and bending generated in the fabricationprocess were analyzed and eliminated. The surface roughness was about 27 nm(rms). Compared to the untreated PS, the molded PS retained almost the samesurface properties, as characterized by contact angle measurement and X-rayphotoelectron spectroscopy. Cell culture was tested to demonstrate the utilityof Si-SIIL in cell  biology applications. The results show that PS, with the aidof Si-SIIL, can be an alternative material to  PDMS in building  microfluidicchips.

Keywords: Polystyrenechip; Si-SIIL; High aspect ratio; Cell culture

论文链接：

https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1UsJV3IQMP6~Ln

或   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925400517305713