Rapid And Low Cost Prototyping Of Microfluidic Chips

Microfluidic chip as a new analytical technology platform,because of its unique advantages,has been widely applied and researched in many fields such as biochemistry,clinical detection,and environmental detection,and has become one of the most active areas in the development of analytical science and technology.The fabrication of microfluidic chips is a prerequisite for the application and research of microfluidic technology.Therefore,it is important to developed the efficient and simple method for fabricatingmicrofluidic chips.This thesis is mainly focused on the development of rapid and low-cost method for prototyping microfluidic chips,including both patterning and bonding of microchannels.The main contents of this thesis include the following aspects:(1)A simple and convenient technology is presented for fabricating 3D microfluidic chips,which is based on the combination of laser cutting with PET transparent film and pressure sensitive double-sided adhesive.We have determined the specific technological conditions and key technology schemes for thefabrication of 3D microfluidic chips and realized the fast and simple production of several typical 3D microfluidic chips.This method greatly reduces the production cost of 3D microfluidic chip and simplifies the production process,and can promote the wide application of 3D microfluidic chip.(2)A CNC milling-based method is proposed for the fabrication of glass microfluidic chips.We investigated the effects of different process parameters and conditions on the fabrication of glass microfluidic chips in detail,establishing the optimal process parameters and processing conditions,and successfully realized the rapid and easy production of several typical glass microfluidic chips.It greatly reduces the production cost of glass microfluidic chip and shortens the production cycle,and have the great significance to realize the wide application of glass microfluidic chips.(3)To meet the demand of the fast and low-cost production of microfluidic chips,a self-adhesive film based method is presented for bonding microfluidic chips.According to different application requirements,this strategy can realize two different modes of bonding,including the high strength reversible bonding and the high strength irreversible bonding.We investigaed the effects of the bonding conditions on the bonding strength.Furthermore,we also carried out the related theoretical analysis and experimental verification for the film bonding technology,and determined the optimization conditions of film bonding.The film bonding is beneficial to the mass production of microfluidic chips,thereby facilitating the wide application of microfluidic technology.In summary,this thesis,presents several methods for the rapid and low-cost prototyping of microfluidic chips,including laser-cutting-based fabrication of3 D microfluidic chips,CNC-milling-based fabrication of glass microfluidic chips,and self-ahesive film based bonding of microfluidic chips.These methods provide effective solutions for the rapid,efficient and low-cost production of the prototype microfluidic chip,and enable microfluidic technology accessible to the general laboratories.