A process chain for integrating microfluidic interconnection elements by micro-overmoulding of thermoplastic elastomers

摘要

This paper presents a process chain for in-line integration of microfluidicinterconnection elements by a variant of micro-injection moulding (mu IM). ASEBS-based thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) was moulded over polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA) to produce a hybrid microfluidic structure with an aspect ratio of 2. Theprocess chain implemented micro-milling for fabricating micro-structured toolinserts, and mu IM and micro-overmoulding was used for replication. A two-platemould was used for moulding the substrate, whilst a three-plate mould with areplaceable insert was used for TPE overmoulding. The presented application wasan interconnect system for a microfluidic device, which enabled direct fittingof standard tubes into microfluidic substrates. A leakage test showed that theinterconnection was leak-proof within a range of flow rates between 0.32 and0.62 ml min(-1).