Photo-polymer microchannel technologies and applications

A set of new technologies to fabricate microchannels using photosensitive polymer materials is presented. They are based on the use of polymers, hereafter called photopolymers, that are cured with UV light under a mask exposure. The basic material is ail epoxy-based photopolymer which can be patterned in thick layers with high aspect ratio.-Several process variations for making multilayered channel network are described and discussed. a) a process based on the refill of channels with a non-sensitive polymer, b) a process based on interlevel masking and c) a new process involving the lamination of dry films. With all three processes, multilevel channel networks have been fabricated with minimum channel width and height of about 25 micrometers. The photopolymer channel technology offers: a good alternative to other technologies such as glass and silicon micromachining or plastic molding when multilevel crossing microchannels are needed. Moreover, the photoplastic channel technology is a relatively low cost technology that could be applied, in some cases, to disposable fluidic chips.