Thermal assisted ultrasonic bonding method for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microfluidic devices.

A thermal assisted ultrasonic bonding method for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microfluidic devices has been presented. The substrates were preheated to 20-30 degrees C lower than glass transition temperature (T(g)) of the polymer. Then low amplitude ultrasonic vibration was employed to generate facial heat at the interface of PMMA substrates. PMMA microfluidic chips were successfully bonded with bulk temperature well below T(g) of the material and with pressure two orders lower than conventional thermal bonding, which was of great benefit to reduce the deformation of microstructures. The bonding process was optimized by Taguchi method. This bonding technique showed numerous superiorities including high bonding strength (0.95MPa), low dimension loss (0.3-0.8%) and short bonding time. Finally, a micromixer was successfully bonded by this method and its performance was demonstrated.

[1]  P. Dawson,et al.  Heating and bonding mechanisms in ultrasonic welding of thermoplastics , 1983 .

[2]  J. Ruano-Lopez,et al.  Fabrication of SU-8 based microchip electrophoresis with integrated electrochemical detection for neurotransmitters. , 2009, Talanta.

[3]  Che-Hsin Lin,et al.  Low azeotropic solvent for bonding of PMMA microfluidic devices , 2007 .

[4]  Z. Nie,et al.  Microchip capillary electrophoresis for frontal analysis of free bilirubin and study of its interaction with human serum albumin , 2008, Electrophoresis.

[5]  Yu-jiang Xie,et al.  Vacuum-assisted thermal bonding of plastic capillary electrophoresis microchip imprinted with stainless steel template. , 2004, Journal of chromatography. A.

[6]  T. Hattori,et al.  Microfabrication by hot embossing and injection molding at LASTI , 2004 .

[7]  A. Majumdar,et al.  Stamp-and-stick room-temperature bonding technique for microdevices , 2005, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[8]  W. Shi,et al.  Mechanisms of ultrasonic joining of textile materials , 2000 .

[9]  Mu Chiao,et al.  Ultrasonic Bonding for MEMS Sealing and Packaging , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging.

[10]  Adam T Woolley,et al.  Thermal bonding of polymeric capillary electrophoresis microdevices in water. , 2003, Analytical chemistry.

[11]  Sum Huan Ng,et al.  Microfluidic connectors by ultrasonic welding , 2009 .

[12]  Yue Cheng,et al.  An ultrasonic welding based process for building up a new class of inert fluidic microsensors and -actuators from polymers , 2006 .