Geckofluidics: A strong and reliable reversible bonding technique for microfluidics

Abstract

Towards minimizing the cost of Micro Total Analysis Systems(µTAS) or Lab on a chip (LoC) systems, it is important to minimize manufacturing and assembly cost and time, and lower material costs. While the choice of material does govern material costs and the manufacturing process required and thereby, the time, it has been observed that the assembly(bonding) and interfacing time is one of the major rate limiting stepsfor the entire process. This work is an attempt to introduce a new bonding technique for microfluidics by using synthetic gecko inspired adhesives. This technique is being referred to as Geckofluidics. It doesn’t require the use of any solvents or glues or surface activation or application of high pressure and/or temperature and is achievable in a process which doesn’t require any additional equipment or add to the cost. It provides for a strong and reliable, reversible bonding technique, with bond strengths being on par with traditional irreversible bond strengths in elastomers. This work characterizes the manufacturing feasibility of geckofluidic devices with various thermoplastic elastomers. A finite element simulation was also implemented inorder to study the effect of some of the remedial measures taken to improve the adhesion strength, and also to study the minimum number of adhesive features required to effectively support the integration with microfluidics.A rapid mass manufacturing technique is also demonstrated using thermocompressive molding in thermoplastic elastomers. The resulting devices have been demonstrated for use for both pressurized and non-pressurized microfluidic systems against various substrates.