Abstract—Microfluidics involves fluid dynamics, controlled fluid manipulations, and design of devices or systems in microchannels with typical dimensions of 10 to 200 micrometers. The conventional fabrication method of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannels is soft lithography, which involves an expensive process for the preparation of master. The study aims to fabricate microchannels using print-and-peel (PAP) method for simple and low-cost construction of microfluidic systems. Based on the PAP method, a PDMS microchannel is developed using a master based on inkjet ink relief printed on paper. The study improves on the existing methodologies for PAP method by devising a technique called “printing-over”, which is reprinting of the same pattern over itself at a high precision by modifying the printing process. This can produce irregularly-shaped molds with dimensions that can reach up to 200 micrometer width and 14.8 micrometer height, with aspect ratio equal to 0.07. Moreover, the aspect ratio is found to increase proportionally with number of printing-over runs. The microchannel produced from the mold has dimensions of 155 by 10 micrometers with aspect ratio of 0.06. With a rough cost analysis, the capital and variable costs of the PAP inkjet method are significantly lower than that of photolithography.
Index Terms—Low-cost microfluidics, polydimethylsiloxane, print-and-peel method, inkjet printing.
The authors are with University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines (e-mail: kristian.yap@gmail.com).
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Cite: Kristian July R. Yap, John Paul Niño A. Sanglay, Jan Samuel C. Matuba, and Rodgee F. Abaya, "Low-Cost Fabrication of a PDMS Microchannel Using an Improved Print-and-Peel (PAP) Method," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 148-151, 2017.
