Large-Area and High-Throughput PDMS Microfluidic Chip Fabrication Assisted by Vacuum Airbag Laminator
Shuting Xie,
Jun Wu,
Biao Tang,
Guofu Zhou,
Mingliang Jin,
Lingling Shui
Affiliations
Shuting Xie
Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics & Joint International Research Laboratory of Optical Information of the Chinese Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Jun Wu
Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics & Joint International Research Laboratory of Optical Information of the Chinese Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Biao Tang
Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics & Joint International Research Laboratory of Optical Information of the Chinese Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Guofu Zhou
Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics & Joint International Research Laboratory of Optical Information of the Chinese Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Mingliang Jin
Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics & Joint International Research Laboratory of Optical Information of the Chinese Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Lingling Shui
Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics & Joint International Research Laboratory of Optical Information of the Chinese Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
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.
