Research And Design Of The Imprinting Machine For Polymeric Microfluidic Chips

Automatic imprinting machine for polymeric microfluidic chips is a main part of the 863 project named the micro-mould fabrication equipment of microfluidic chips (item number: 2002AA42115), which aims to develop an automatic system for the imprinting and bonding of polymeric microfluidic chips. This system is made up of temperature equipment, hydraulic equipment, vacuum equipment and PLC control system. The design and integration of the equipments above is the main content of this thesis.The development and microfabrication techniques of microfluidic chips are summarized and the development of imprinting over the world is also introduced., Besides the flow of the polymer, the effect of temperature, pressure and time on imprinting is analyzed. The main contents of this thesis are followed:The scheme of system is investigated. After studying on the theory and model of imprinting, the scheme is designed. The thermoelectric module as heat/cooling element, hydraulic drive as pressure equipment and vacuum pump are employed in this system.The mechanism has been designed. Engineering calculation and mechanical design are done, based on the function analysis. The design of the three main equipments is presented.The PLC control system has been designed and developed. The type of PLC controller is selected and followed as the design of I/O circuit. The control circuit and theory of the temperature, pressure and vacuum are buildup as well.Performance experiments have been done including the rising/falling speed of temperature and control accuracy of temperature, pressure and vacuum. Quality experiments including the effect of temperature, pressure and vacuum on the micro-channel imprinting are presented.The system has been applied on fabricating microfludic chips. The effect indicated that the system is reliable and satisfies the requirements of the process of imprinting.