Novel Reproducible Manufacturing and Reversible Sealing Method for Microfluidic Devices

CAMILO PÉREZ‐SOSA; ANA BELÉN PEÑAHERRERA‐PAZMIÑO; GUSTAVO ROSERO; NATALIA BOURGUIGNON; APARNA ARAVELLI; SHEKHAR BHANSALI; MAXIMILIANO SEBASTIAN PÉREZ; BETIANA LERNER

Micromachines

MDPI

Año: 2022 vol. 13

2072-666X

Conventional manufacturing methods for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)‐basedmicrodevices require multiple steps and elements that increase cost and production time. Also,these PDMS microdevices are mostly limited to single use, and it is difficult to recover the contentsinside the microchannels or perform advanced microscopy visualization due to their irreversiblesealing method. Herein, we developed a novel manufacturing method based onpolymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) plates adjusted using a mechanical pressure‐based system. Oneconformation of the PMMA plate assembly system allows the reproducible manufacture of PDMSreplicas, reducing the cost since a precise amount of PDMS is used, and the PDMS replicas showuniform dimensions. A second form of assembling the PMMA plates permits pressure‐basedsealing of the PDMS layer with a glass base. By reversibly sealing the microdevice without usingplasma for bonding, we achieve chip on/off configurations, which allow the user to open and closethe device and reuse it in an easy‐to‐use way. No deformation was observed on the structures ofthe PDMS microchannels when a range of 10 to 18 kPa pressure was applied using the technique.Furthermore, the functionality of the proposed system was successfully validated by the generationof microdroplets with reused microdevices via three repetitions.