Slump Molding Of Microchannel Arrays In Soda-lime Glass For Bioanalytical Device Development

Abstract

A slump molding process was developed to place microchannel geometries in a sodalime glass substrate for a lab-on-chip bioanalytical device. The process was developed to overcome the biological and chemical reactivity associated with current polymer lab-ona- chip substrates, and as an alternative to using more expensive glass material. A high speed micro mill and UV laser micromachining center were used to fabricate the negative geometries in the graphite mold material that was used. The slumping process of the soda-lime glass was done using a glass kiln. Microchannel dimensions were in the mesa scale range of 50 μm width x 10 μm depth. The heating schedule for slump molding of the soda-lime glass to take its final shape to these dimensions was determined and documented. The functionality of the slumping process and resultant soda-lime glass device was validated through murine nerve tissue experiments conducted through the bioanalytical device that was developed. The research represented a novel use of slump molding, a process traditionally known for producing artistic works for: (a) embossing engineered microchannels and (b) reliably processing a soda-lime glass substrate, a material known to be difficult to work with due to its poor physical properties.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2166-0476; 2166-0468

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2023 American Society of Mechanical Engineers, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Dec 2014

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