A novel bonding method for fabrication of PET planar nanofluidic chip with low dimension loss and high bonding strength

摘要

Plastic planar nanofluidic chips are becoming increasingly important for biological and chemical applications. However, the majority of the present bonding methods for planar nanofluidic chips suffer from high dimension loss and low bonding strength. In this work, a novel thermal bonding technique based on O-2 plasma and ethanol treatment was proposed. With the assistance of O-2 plasma and ethanol, the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) planar nanofluidic chip can be bonded at a low bonding temperature of 50 degrees C. To increase the bonding rate and bonding strength, the O-2 plasma parameters and thermal bonding parameters were optimized during the bonding process. The tensile test indicates that the bonding strength of the PET planar nanofluidic chip can reach 0.954 MPa, while the auto-fluorescence test demonstrates that there is no leakage or blockage in any of the bonded micro-or nanochannels.