Monolithic microfabricated valves and pumps by multilayer soft lithography

Soft Lithography is an alternative to silicon-based micromachining that use s replica molding of nontraditional elastomeric materials to fabricate stam ps and microfluidic channels. We describe here an extension to the soft Lit hography. paradigm. multilayer soft lithography, with which devices consist ing of multiple Layers may be fabricated from soft materials. We used this technique to build active microfluidic systems containing on-off valves, sw itching valves, and pumps entirely out of elastomer. The softness of these materials allows the device areas to be reduced by more than two orders of magnitude compared with silicon-based devices. The other advantages of soft Lithography, such as rapid prototyping, ease of fabrication, and biocompat ibility, are retained.