EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF SURFACE-DRIVEN CAPILLARY FLOW IN PMMA MICROFLUIDIC DEVICES PREPARED BY DIRECT BONDING TECHNIQUE AND PASSIVE SEPARATION OF MICROPARTICLES IN MICROFLUIDIC LABORATORY-ON-A-CHIP SYSTEMS

Proper bonding technique is investigated to achieve leakage-free surface-driven capillary flow in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) microfluidic devices. SU-8-based silicon stamp is fabricated by maskless lithography. This stamp is used to produce PMMA microchannel structure by hot embossing lithography. A direct bonding technique is mainly employed for leakage-free sealing inside PMMA microfluidic devices. The effect of surface wettability on surface-driven capillary flow is also investigated in PMMA microfluidic devices. The separation of polystyrene microparticles in PMMA laboratory-on-a-chip systems is investigated with the reduction of separation time by air dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma processing of channel surfaces. This study is useful to fabricate the microfluidic laboratory-on-a-chip systems and to understand the surface-driven capillary flow.