Novel methods to pattern polymers for microfluidics

Abstract

We present two novel methods for the preparation of arbitrary micro-scale patterns of polymers on surfaces with pre-defined topography. While photosensitive polymers are used commonly together with optical lithography, the methods presented can be used for nonphotostructurable polymers and where spin-coating cannot be performed. As demonstrator of the viability of the proposed fabrication process, they have been applied for the definition of hydrophobic barriers on a microfluidics network, which is dedicated to selectively dispense liquid to a spotting device consisting of 12 silicon microcantilevers.