An adhesive bonding method with microfabricating micro pillars to prevent clogging in a microchannel

Thermoplastics are widely used in the fabrication of microfluidic chips, due to their low cost, flexibility in manufacturing, and applicability in large-scale production. This paper presents a novel bonding method for the assembly of thermoplastic microfluidic chips, with the aim of preventing the flow of UV adhesive into microchannels during the bonding process. The proposed bonding methodology depends primarily on controlling the thickness of the UV adhesive, which is achieved by using spin-coating for the uniform UV adhesive in conjunction with the microfabrication of short pillars for keeping a uniform gap between the two bonded surfaces. In this study, two devices with serpentine microchannels (cross-sectional area of 500 μm  ×  500 μm and 200 μm  ×  200 μm) were fabricated on PMMA substrates using a micromilling machine, whereupon a hydrophobic coating was applied to the walls of 200 μm  ×  200 μm microchannels in order to prevent clogging, which might otherwise be caused by the seepage of UV adhesive into the channels. A variety of experiments were used to characterize the quality of bonding, the results of which reveal the following: (1) no leakage was observed in either of the microfluidic chips; (2) the hydrophobic coating proved highly effective in preventing the flow of UV adhesive into the smaller microchannels; (3) the average amount of clogging inside 500 μm  ×  500 μm microchannels was 1.13% with standard deviation of 0.55%, while the average amount of clogging inside 200 μm  ×  200 μm microchannels was 1.65% with standard deviation of 0.92%; (4) the average thickness of the UV adhesive in a 500 μm  ×  500 μm microfluidic chip was 32 μm with standard deviation of 2 μm, whereas the average thickness of the UV adhesive in a 200 μm  ×  200 μm microfluidic chip was 31 μm with standard deviation of 1.2 μm; (5) the two chips possess sufficient bonding strength to withstand pressure of at least 10 bar. (paper)