Fabrication of plastic CE(capillary electrophoresis) microchip by hot embossing process

Abstract

A plastic-based CE (capillary electrophoresis) microchip was fabricated by hot embossing process. A Si mold was made by wet etching process and a PMMA wafer was cut off from 1mm thick PMMA sheet. A micro-channel structure on PMMA substrate was produced by hot embossing process using the Si mold and the PMMA wafer. A vacuum assisted thermal bonding procedure was employed to seal an imprinted PMMA wafer and a blank PMMA wafer. The results of microscopic cross sectional images showed dimensions of channels were well preserved during thermal bonding process. In our procedure, the deformation amount of bonding process was below 1%. The entire fabrication process may be very useful for plastic based microchip systems.