Authors:
Toshiyuki Horiuchi
and
Shinpei Yoshino
Affiliation:
Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Keyword(s):
Micro-fluidic Device, Micro-mixer, Lithography, Thick Resist, Vertical Sidewall, Blue Filter.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomechanical Devices
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Instruments and Devices
;
Hardware
;
MEMS
;
Sensor Networks
Abstract:
Various methods have been proposed for fabricating biochemical, pharmaceutical, and medical micro-fluidic devices. Among them, the new method using groove patterns formed in a thick resist film as the flow paths is promising. Because the flow paths are directly fabricated only using one lithography process, complicated flow paths can be obtained easily and precisely. However, it is often required to prepare an expensive exposure system newly for applying the method to practical fabrications of the devices. For this reason, the effective method has not been sufficiently utilized practically. Here, a very low-cost exposure tool was developed to make a breakthrough. In the new tool, functions were minimized, and limited to indispensable ones. However, because the required pattern widths were in the range of 50-200 μm, flow-path patterns were nicely fabricated. Assembling the fabricated micro-mixer chips with the vessels and lids, it was verified that two liquids were simultaneously inje
cted into the mixer paths without leaks. Thus, it was clarified that the new exposure tool was useful. Micro-patterns fabricated using the new simple exposure tool will be useful for developing various micro-fluidic devices.
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