Work

Photolithographic surface micromachining of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: A major technical hurdle in microfluidics is the difficulty in achieving high fidelity lithographic patterning on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Here, we report a simple yet highly precise and repeatable PDMS surface micromachining method using direct photolithography followed by reactive ion etching (RIE). Our method to achieve surface patterning of PDMS applied an O(2) plasma treatment to PDMS to activate its surface to overcome the challenge of poor photoresist adhesion on PDMS for photolithography. Our photolithographic PDMS surface micromachining technique is compatible with conventional soft lithography techniques and other silicon-based surface and bulk micromachining methods. To illustrate the general application of our method, we demonstrated fabrication of large microfiltration membranes and free-standing beam structures in PDMS.

Source: Lab on a Chip

DOI: 10.1039/c1lc20721k

Authors: Weiqiang Chen, Raymond H. W. Lam, Jianping Fu

Institutions: University of Michigan, City University of Hong Kong

Language: English

Topic: Microfluidic and Capillary Electrophoresis Applications

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Center for Research Resources

Award: Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) (UL1)