Application of different process chains for polymer microfluidics fabrication including hybrid tooling technologies, standardization and replication : a benchmark investigation within 4M Polymer Division

This paper is based on the Division 4 “Processing of Polymers” activities within the 4M NoE “Multi-Material Micro Manufacturing”. To overpass limitations of the current existing micro tooling capabilities, a new generation of micro hybrid tooling technologies for micro replication was developed. A metrological approach was applied to standardize the employed tooling processes (μ-milling, μ-EDM, laser μ-machining, electrochemical μ-milling). The micro tools were then tested with different polymers. The paper provides a comparison of these technologies concerning obtainable feature sizes, surface finishing, and aspect ratios of both micro tools and micro moulded parts.