Manufacturing Processes for Polymer-Based Microfluidic Devices

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Our overall aim is to develop engineering science-based simulation tools and processing procedures for the production of polymeric microfluidic devices with micron- and sub-micron-sized capillaries. The specific process to be considered is micro-hot-embossing. We propose the following tasks: (a) Conduct experiments to characterize the temperature and strain-rate-dependent mechanical behavior of amorphous polymers, e.g., polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC), for application to hot-embossing. (b) Formulation of thermo-mechanically-coupled, large-deformation, visco-elastic-plastic constitutive models for amorphous polymers. (c) Development of a finite-element-based simulation and design capability for micro-hot-embossing. (d) Conduct micro-hot-embossing experiments to check the predictive capability of our numerical simulation procedures. This fundamental study on polymer manufacturing processes at the micro/nano-scale will further the scientific underpinnings of the rapidly emerging industry for the manufacture of microfluidic devices. Such devices are Microsystems, which control the flow of small volumes (nano- or pico-liters) of fluids (gases or liquids) through micro-capillary channels on a ``chip'', which is integrated with computerized analytical instruments. The devices contain active and passive microstructural features that control the flow and mixing of the fluids to produce physical, chemical and microbiological reactions on small volumes of materials, and are beginning to be used in a wide variety of applications: e.g., biochemical assays, capillary electrophoresis, cell counting and sorting, cell growth, detection of biological species, genomics, liquid chromatography, and even computation. The research should also be able to support the development of other key industries, such as polymer-based photonic and nano-optical devices.