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The Membrane Micro Emboss (MeME) Process for Fabricating 3-D Microfluidic Device Formed from Thin Polymer Membrane

M. Ikeuchi and K. IkutaDept. of Micro/Nano Systems Eng., School of Eng., Nagoya University, Japan

9633584 　黃紫郁

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Outline

Introduction Fabrication Results Conclusion

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Introduction The “membrane micro emboss (MeME) process” realizes

arbitrary 3-D microstructures made of thin mesoporous polymer membrane.

The “membrane microfluidic device” offers much higher mass and heat transfer through microchannel walls.

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Introduction

The whole surface of the microchannel itself works as a large filter in this device. larger filtration area, and the smaller area for packaging.

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Fabrication － Membrane Poly-lactic acid (PLA) solu

tion dissolved in dioxane/water mixed solvent.

Spin-coated on a glass substrate and dried in vacuo.

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Fabrication － apparatus Stepping motor 100 nm.

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Fabrication － MeME The PLA membrane thick

ness is 5 μm.

Support substrate is paraffin.

Heat-sealing at 70 ℃ for 30 s.

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Fabrication － parameters The effect of the process including pressing time period,

pressing speed and the property of paraffin.

Pressing time period: Longer time period resulted in

smaller curvature at the bottom corner of the micro-channel.

The height saturated before 250 s.

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Fabrication － parametersPressing speed and the property of paraffin Higher pressing speed and the use of paraffin with higher

melting point increased the height.

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Fabrication － parametersPressing speed and the property of paraffin This was due to the increasing pressure against the

membrane under these conditions.

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Results

The lateral resolution was smaller than 15 μm.

The vertical resolution was around 1 μm.

The resolutions can be much smaller with thinner membranes.

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Results

The microchannels with width and depth of 50 μm, and wall thickness of 5 μm.

Red solution was filled in the microchannels by capillary force.

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Results

Suspension of microbeads ranging from 0.1 μm to 15 μm in diameter.

Size-selective filter with 1 μm cut-off diameter.

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Conclusion

MeME process to fabricate membrane microfluidic devices high precision, speed and simplicity.

It requires only thermo-plasticity of the membrane material.

New application of microfluidic devices for biological and

chemical analysis temperature control and interfacial mass transfer.

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References M. Ikeuchi, K. Ikuta, “The Membrane Micro Emboss (MeME) Process for Fabric

ating 3-D Microfluidic Device Formed from Thin Polymer Membrane”, Proc. TAS’06 Conference, Nov.5-9, 2006, pp.693-695.

M. Ikeuchi, K. Ikuta, “On-site Size-selective Particle Sampling Using Mesoporous Polymer Membrane Microfluidic Device”, Proc. TAS’06 Conference, Nov.5-9, 2006, pp.1169-1171.

M. Ikeuchi, K. Ikuta, “ARTIFICIAL CAPILLARY NETWORK CHIP FOR IN VITRO 3D TISSUE CULTURE”, TRANSDUCERS’07 Conference, June 10-14, 2007, pp.1337-1340.

M. Ikeuchi, K. Ikuta, “Fabrication of Biodegradable Membrane Micro-channels for Artificial Blood Capillary Networks Using Membrane Micro Embossing (MeME)”, 生体醫工學 , Vol.43, pp.646-652, 2005.

M. Ikeuchi, The 21st Century COE Program, pp.111.