The fabrication of robust microfluidics can be tedious, often involving the use of numerous cleanroom resources and processes. We propose a process that is easy to apply yet capable of producing precision microfluidics in polymer with high yield and high fidelity at a wafer scale. The process is centered on the use of a wafer aligner-bonder implementing a one-step hot embossing process to transfer microfluidic designs from a Si master mold onto a thermoplastic deformable substrate. The approach has the additional benefit of transferring features directly to the substrate without the need for pre-annealing or other pre-processing. Additionally, the mold used to replicate the microfluidic design can be re-used numerous times. The most important process parameters, embossing temperature, embossing pressure, embossing time and demolding temperature, were optimised. We demonstrate the process by fabricating over 340 microfluidic chips per 4-inch diameter cyclic-olefin co-polymer substrate. The approach should scale to larger wafer diameters using a wafer aligner-bonder of larger diameter platens, suitable for volume manufacturing.

鲁棒的微流体的制造可能很繁琐，通常涉及使用大量洁净室资源和过程。我们提出了一种易于应用但能够在晶片规模上以高产率和高保真度在聚合物中生产精密微流体的方法。该过程集中在使用晶片对准器粘合剂上，该晶片对准器粘合剂执行一步热压花过程，以将微流体设计从Si主模转移到热塑性可变形衬底上。该方法具有将特征直接转移到基板上而无需进行预退火或其他预处理的额外好处。另外，用于复制微流体设计的模具可以重复使用多次。最重要的工艺参数，压纹温度，压纹压力，压纹时间和脱模温度，被优化。我们通过在每4英寸直径的环状烯烃共聚物基板上制造340多个微流控芯片来演示该过程。该方法应使用适合大批量生产的大直径压板的晶圆对准器来缩放到更大的晶圆直径。