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Here at Creative Biolabs, our low-cost, high-precision manufacturing technology supplemented by complete microfabrication equipment will greatly assist our clients to achieve the production and processing of polymer material microfluidic chips.

Polymer Microfluidic Chip

Microfluidic devices provide simple, economical and maneuverable solutions for classic biological assay and chemical experiments. The miniaturization of traditional chemical reactions and the construction of organ chips have opened up new routes with unlimited potential for much research. The functionality of microfluidic systems is achieved through the primitive properties of materials, special design of structures and manipulation of flow properties. Each chip substrate has its unique advantages and is indispensable in microfluidic systems. Therefore, the correct selection of processing materials is essential for the successful application of microfluidic systems.

Advantages of Polymer

Due to the high relevance of semiconductor manufacturing technology and the versatility in the biological/chemical field, microfluidic chips initially used silicon and glass as substrate materials. These two materials have the highest manufacturing precision, excellent chemical inertness and biocompatibility, but the complicated processing procedures and high cost greatly limit the development of microfluidic technology. Polymer materials have excellent thermal stability, optical transparency and biocompatibility, which fits the application of various biological and chemical experiments. In addition, various polymer chip fabrication techniques and surface modification strategies have been innovatively supplemented and developed, which greatly expands the application potential of polymer materials in the field of microfluidics. Polymer materials commonly used in microfluidic chip fabrication include silicone elastomers, thermosets and thermoplastics.

Table.1 Property of microfluidic chip materials.

Elastomers

As one of the polymer materials, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has been used as an independent material in the field of microfluidics. PDMS is cheap, optically transparent, biocompatible and gas permeable, which is an ideal material for the manufacture of low-cost small-scale microfluidic chips. By adjusting the composition of raw materials, the physical parameters of PDMS such as stiffness, conductivity, and light transmission can be directly manipulated, and the easy-to-operate surface modification procedure can rapidly and conveniently realize the channel modification and functionalization of PDMS chips. PDMS chips fabricated by soft lithography also have the lowest precision threshold among polymer chips, and can be manufactured rapidly with only a few simple equipment supports. Although PDMS has some disadvantages due to its characteristics, it still becomes the best choice for microfluidic manufacturing and small-scale experiments.

Thermosets

Thermosetting plastics are liquid or semi-solid before processing. Once heated or irradiated, the internal molecules of the material cross-link into a rigid structure that cannot be reshaped. Commonly used thermoset materials include thermoset polyesters and epoxy plastics. Thermosetting materials can construct complex microstructures and high aspect ratio channels through photoinitiated polymerization, and the extremely high structural strength ensures stability in use. In general, thermosets are transparent and chemically inert, making them excellent candidates for microfluidic systems for biological research. However, the high cost and low polymerization processing precision limit the versatility of such materials.

Thermoplastics

Thermoplastics can be softened and reshaped at temperatures after solidification. There are many types of thermoplastic materials currently used for low-cost microfluidic chips, including polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalic acid (PET), cycloolefin copolymer (COC), etc. PMMA has excellent optical and thermal properties with good cost-effectiveness, and is widely used in various biological and medical research. PS has excellent biocompatibility and well-defined surface modification procedures, and has been used for cell culture. COC has better transmission performance and thermal stability in the ultraviolet light band. The water absorption of COC is only 1/10 of other materials. COC can be directly used as a substitute for glass chips under most circumstances. Thermoplastic materials are mainly produced by casting molds, and molds with high precision and structural strength are usually expensive, so thermoplastic materials are mostly used for large-volume production.

Fig 1. Workflow of polymer microfluidic chip fabrication. (Creative Biolabs)

Related Services

Equipped with complete micro-manufacturing devices, well-trained staff, abundant manufacturing experience and cutting-edge technology, Creative Biolabs provides one-stop polymer microfluidic chip solutions for clients from all over the world. You may purchase well-characterized and verified general-purpose functional chip products for downstream experiments directly, or you can provide requirements or design sketches to entrust us to develop a microfluidic system with specific functions for you. We will comprehensively evaluate material properties, manufacturing costs, and functional requirements to select the most suitable material and fabrication technology to bring your vision into reality. In addition, we also perform a series of back-end procedures including prototype verification, property characterization, channel sealing, and surface modification. Creative Biolabs is also capable of performing any biological downstream experiments you need. Please don't hesitate to contact us for more information.

For Research Use Only. Not For Clinical Use.