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. 2017 Jul 12;8(7):218.
doi: 10.3390/mi8070218.

Large-Area and High-Throughput PDMS Microfluidic Chip Fabrication Assisted by Vacuum Airbag Laminator

Shuting Xie  1 , Jun Wu  2 , Biao Tang  3 , Guofu Zhou  4 , Mingliang Jin  5 , Lingling Shui  6
Affiliations

Large-Area and High-Throughput PDMS Microfluidic Chip Fabrication Assisted by Vacuum Airbag Laminator

Shuting Xie et al. Micromachines (Basel). .

Abstract

One of the key fabrication steps of large-area microfluidic devices is the flexible-to-hard sheet alignment and pre-bonding. In this work, the vacuum airbag laminator (VAL) which is commonly used for liquid crystal display (LCD) production has been applied for large-area microfluidic device fabrication. A straightforward, efficient, and low-cost method has been achieved for 400 × 500 mm² microfluidic device fabrication. VAL provides the advantages of precise alignment and lamination without bubbles. Thermal treatment has been applied to achieve strong PDMS⁻glass and PDMS⁻PDMS bonding with maximum breakup pressure of 739 kPa, which is comparable to interference-assisted thermal bonding method. The fabricated 152 × 152 mm² microfluidic chip has been successfully applied for droplet generation and splitting.

Keywords: fabrication; large-area; microfluidic devices; vacuum airbag laminator.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Schematic drawing of the microfluidic device design; (b) Photograph of one fabricated large-area microfluidic plate with multiple chips.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic of the Vacuum airbag laminator (VAL) aligning and pre-bonding process: (a) flipping well-positioned top plate to the middle of the bottom plate; (b) aligning and laminating the flexible top sheet to the bottom plate; (c) releasing the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sheet from the top stage; (d) pre-bonding the PDMS–glass chip by pressure roller; and (e) releasing the pre-bonded chip from the bottom stage.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The bonding strength analysis: (a) the tested PDMS chip sample; (b) the home-made device with a digital tubular tensiometer; and (c) the software interface showing the pressure distribution applied on the contact surface between the two surfaces.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The peeling-off experiments at different temperatures: (a) 120 °C; (b) 140 °C; (c) 160 °C; (d) 180 °C; (e) 200 °C; (f) 220 °C; (g) 240 °C; and (h) 260 °C.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The variation of bonding force with (a) temperature (T); (b) holding time (th) at 200 °C; and (c) the mass ratio of pre-polymer to curing agent (Rm) of PDMS substrate.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Comparison of adhesion force (a,d) and leakage flow rates (b,c,e,f) when PDMS–glass devices were bonded by VAL pre-bonding without thermal bonding (a–c), and the combination of VAL pre-bonding and thermal bonding at 200 °C for 4 h (d–f). The applied flow rates were: (b) 200 μL·h−1; (c) 250 μL·h−1; (e) 200 μL·h−1; and (f) 1000 μL·h−1, respectively.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Schematic illustration of the experimental set-up; (b) A snapshot of the droplet generation at the T-junction; (c) A snapshot of the droplet breakup at the Y-joint; (d) A snapshot of the droplets flow in the outlet channel after being broken at various ratio from the Y-joint. All scale bars in the figures are 500 μm.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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