Cost-effective fabrication of photopolymer molds with multi-level microstructures for PDMS microfluidic devices manufacture

CAROL OLMOS; ANA PEñAHERRERA; GUSTAVO ROSERO; KARLA VIZUETE; DARíO RUARTE; MARIE FOLLO; ANDREA VACA; CARLOS R. ARROYO; ALEXIS DEBUT; LUIS CUMBAL; MAXIMILIANO S. PéREZ; ROLAND MERTELSMANN; BETIANA LERNER

RSC Advances

The Royal Society of Chemistry

Año: 2020

2046-2069

This paper describes a methodology of photopolymer molds fabrication with multi-level microstructures for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic devices manufacture. Multi-level microstructures can be performed by varying UVA exposure time and channel width. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and profilometry techniques have been employed to characterize the molds. Multiple molds with multi-level microstructures can be formed in a unique piece. Overall height/depth of the structures reaches up to 677 µm and a minimum of 21 ìm. The method provides several advantages such as reduction of fabrication time, multiple structures with diverse topologies, a great variety of depth and height in a single mold and low cost of fabrication. The effectiveness of multi-level microstructures fabrication was evaluated by constructing PDMS microfluidic devices for cells culture and proliferation