Fabrication of SU-8 moulds on glass substrates by using a common thin negative photoresist as an adhesive layer

A method for fabricating SU-8 moulds on glass substrates is presented. A common thin negative photoresist was coated on the glass slide as an adhesive layer, and then SU-8 was patterned on the adhesive layer. The presence of the adhesive layer improved the lifetime of a SU-8 mould from a few cycles to over 50 cycles. Moreover, the fabrication of the adhesive layer is quite simple and no additional equipment is required. The effects of the adhesion behavior of the negative photoresist and SU-8 on substrates on the durability of the SU-8 mould were investigated. The work of adhesion of the common thin negative photoresist on glass was 51.2 mJ m⁻², which is 22.5% higher than that of SU-8 on silicon and 32.3% higher than that of SU-8 on glass. The abilities of the method for replicating high-aspect-ratio microstructures were also tested. One SU-8 mould with 60 × 60 array micropillars with aspect ratios lower than 3 could be used to cast at least 20 polydimethylsiloxane devices. (paper)