Hot Roller Embossing for the Creation of Microfluidic Devices

TL;DR

This paper presents a hot roller embossing technique for fabricating microfluidic devices in polymers, achieving high fidelity replication of microfeatures with specific dimensional tolerances and exploring temperature effects on feature quality.

Contribution

It introduces a hot roller embossing method for microfluidic device fabrication, demonstrating precise feature replication and analyzing temperature-dependent material behavior.

Findings

Lateral dimensions replicated within 2% tolerance

Achieved feature sizes down to 50 μm and depths up to 30 μm

Observed asymmetric pile-up at lower embossing temperatures

Abstract

We report on the hot roller embossing of polymer sheets for the creation of microfluidic structures. Measurements conducted on 100 $\mu$m features showed that the lateral dimensions could be replicated to within 2% tolerance, while over 85% of mould depth was embossed. Feature sizes down to 50 $\mu$m and feature depths up to 30 $\mu$m had been achieved. At lower temperatures, asymmetric pile up of polymer material outside embossed regions was observed with higher pile up occurring on the trailing side of the embossed regions.