Room-temperature imprinting method for plastic microchannel fabrication

A new plastic imprinting method using a silicon template is demonstrated. T his new approach obviates the necessity of heating the plastic substrate du ring the stamping process, thus improving the device yield from similar to 10 devices to above 100 devices per template. The dimensions of the imprint ed microchannels were found to be very reproducible, with variations of les s than 2%. The channel depths were dependent on the pressures applied and t he materials used. Rather than bonding the open channels with another piece of plastic, a flexible and adhesive poly(dimethylsiloxane) film is used to seal the microchannels, which offers many advantages. As an application, i soelectric focusing of green fluorescence protein on these plastic microflu idic devices is illustrated.