All-in-polymer injection molded device for single cell capture using multilevel silicon master fabrication

摘要

This work demonstrates a novel all-in-polymer device for single cell capture applicable for biological recordings. The chip is injection molded and comprises a "cornered" (non planar) aperture. It has been demonstrated how cornered apertures are straightforward to mold in PDMS [1,2]. In this study we demonstrate cornered apertures made in a thermoplastic polymer. One of the advantages of cornered apertures is the ease of microscopy under a standard inverted optical microscope, when using transparent materials. After the part is injection molded, the sealing of the chip is performed by thermal bonding to a polymer foil, so the complete device results from only two parts. It differs from similar devices in the novel material and fabrication platform that enables high reproducibility and inexpensive mass production. Optimization of the fabrication scheme has been carried out in order to avoid defects during demolding. Capturing of single PC 12 cells has been demonstrated.