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Microfluidic & nanofluidic technologies for chemistry, physics, biology, and bioengineering



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Technical Note

Lab Chip, 2008, 8, 1379 - 1385, DOI: 10.1039/b804050h

Soft lithography: masters on demand

Mohamed Abdelgawad, Michael W. L. Watson, Edmond W. K. Young, Jared M. Mudrik, Mark D. Ungrin and Aaron R. Wheeler

We report an ultra-rapid prototyping technique for forming microchannel networks for lab-on-a-chip applications, called masters on-demand. Channels are produced by replica molding on masters formed by laser printing on flexible copper printed circuit board (PCB) substrates. Masters of various designs and dimensions can be individually or mass produced in less than 10 minutes. Using this technique, we have fabricated channels as narrow as 100 m with heights ranging between 9 m and 70 m. Multi-depth channel fabrication is also reported, using a two-step printing process. The functionality of devices formed in this manner is verified by performing in-channel electrophoretic separations and culture and analysis of primary mammalian cells.

Graphical abstract image for this article (ID: b804050h)