Fracture-based fabrication of normally closed, adjustable, and fully reversible microscale fluidic channels.

ABSTRACT: Adjustable fluidic structures play an important role in microfluidic systems. Fracture of multilayered materials under applied tension has been previously demonstrated as a convenient, simple, and inexpensive approach to fabricate nanoscale adjustable structures; here, it is demonstrated how to extend this concept to the microscale. This is achieved by a novel pairing of materials that leverages fracture mechanics to limit crack formation to a specified region, allowing to create size-controllable and adjustable microfluidic structures. This technique can be used to fabricate "normally closed" microfluidic channels that are completely reversible, a feature that is challenging to achieve in conventional systems without careful engineering controls. The adjustable microfluidic channels are t

SUBMITTER: Kim BC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4192030 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature