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Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview

Microfluidic platform technology has presented a new strategy to detect and analyze analytes and biological entities thanks to its reduced dimensions, which results in lower reagent consumption, fast reaction, multiplex, simplified procedure, and high portability. In addition, various forces, such a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Juang, Yi-Je, Chiu, Yu-Jui
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9147778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35631909
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14102028
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author Juang, Yi-Je
Chiu, Yu-Jui
author_facet Juang, Yi-Je
Chiu, Yu-Jui
author_sort Juang, Yi-Je
collection PubMed
description Microfluidic platform technology has presented a new strategy to detect and analyze analytes and biological entities thanks to its reduced dimensions, which results in lower reagent consumption, fast reaction, multiplex, simplified procedure, and high portability. In addition, various forces, such as hydrodynamic force, electrokinetic force, and acoustic force, become available to manipulate particles to be focused and aligned, sorted, trapped, patterned, etc. To fabricate microfluidic chips, silicon was the first to be used as a substrate material because its processing is highly correlated to semiconductor fabrication techniques. Nevertheless, other materials, such as glass, polymers, ceramics, and metals, were also adopted during the emergence of microfluidics. Among numerous applications of microfluidics, where repeated short-time monitoring and one-time usage at an affordable price is required, polymer microfluidics has stood out to fulfill demand by making good use of its variety in material properties and processing techniques. In this paper, the primary fabrication techniques for polymer microfluidics were reviewed and classified into two categories, e.g., mold-based and non-mold-based approaches. For the mold-based approaches, micro-embossing, micro-injection molding, and casting were discussed. As for the non-mold-based approaches, CNC micromachining, laser micromachining, and 3D printing were discussed. This review provides researchers and the general audience with an overview of the fabrication techniques of polymer microfluidic devices, which could serve as a reference when one embarks on studies in this field and deals with polymer microfluidics.
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spelling pubmed-91477782022-05-29 Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview Juang, Yi-Je Chiu, Yu-Jui Polymers (Basel) Review Microfluidic platform technology has presented a new strategy to detect and analyze analytes and biological entities thanks to its reduced dimensions, which results in lower reagent consumption, fast reaction, multiplex, simplified procedure, and high portability. In addition, various forces, such as hydrodynamic force, electrokinetic force, and acoustic force, become available to manipulate particles to be focused and aligned, sorted, trapped, patterned, etc. To fabricate microfluidic chips, silicon was the first to be used as a substrate material because its processing is highly correlated to semiconductor fabrication techniques. Nevertheless, other materials, such as glass, polymers, ceramics, and metals, were also adopted during the emergence of microfluidics. Among numerous applications of microfluidics, where repeated short-time monitoring and one-time usage at an affordable price is required, polymer microfluidics has stood out to fulfill demand by making good use of its variety in material properties and processing techniques. In this paper, the primary fabrication techniques for polymer microfluidics were reviewed and classified into two categories, e.g., mold-based and non-mold-based approaches. For the mold-based approaches, micro-embossing, micro-injection molding, and casting were discussed. As for the non-mold-based approaches, CNC micromachining, laser micromachining, and 3D printing were discussed. This review provides researchers and the general audience with an overview of the fabrication techniques of polymer microfluidic devices, which could serve as a reference when one embarks on studies in this field and deals with polymer microfluidics. MDPI 2022-05-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9147778/ /pubmed/35631909 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14102028 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Juang, Yi-Je
Chiu, Yu-Jui
Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview
title Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview
title_full Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview
title_fullStr Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview
title_full_unstemmed Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview
title_short Fabrication of Polymer Microfluidics: An Overview
title_sort fabrication of polymer microfluidics: an overview
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9147778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35631909
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14102028
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