Fabrication of a T Shape Microfluidic Chip on PMMA by Laser Ablation and Welding

Abstract

Microfluidic chips are commonly used in many industrial and nuclear medicine applications. The biomolecules are labeled with radio nucleoids for increasing the image resolution in nuclear imaging. Labeling of biomolecules with radio nucleoids is an important subject in recent applications of the microfluidic chips. In this paper fabrication of a T-shape microfluidic chip on Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) polymer was investigated. The effect of the experimental parameters such as scanning velocity, pulse repetition rate, and laser fluences on the dimensions and the quality of the microchannels were investigated. A two-dimensional T-shape microchannel was fabricated on a PMMA sheet of 1cm×1cm×0.5cm, under the optimum experimental conditions. A polymer sheet with 2D-microchannels was welded to another PMMA sheet with laser welding for the formation of a 3-dimensional microfluidic chip. Two-dimensional microchannels were fabricated with CO2 and second harmonic of Nd:YAG lasers, both in pulsed mode of operation. Continues and pulse CO2 lasers were both used for welding and formation of three-dimensional microchannels

Keywords

• pmma polymer
• co2 laser
• nd:yag laser
• microfluidic chip
• laser ablation and welding