Manufacturing Processes for Polymer-Based Microfluidic Devices

我们的总体目标是开发基于工程科学的模拟工具和加工程序，用于生产具有微米和亚微米大小的毛细管的聚合物微流控器件。要考虑的具体工艺是微热压花。我们提出了以下任务：(A)进行实验，以表征用于热压印的非晶态聚合物，例如聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯(PMMA)和聚碳酸酯(PC)的温度和应变率相关的力学行为。(B)建立无定形聚合物的热力耦合、大变形、粘弹塑性本构模型。(C)开发基于有限元的微热压花模拟和设计能力。(D)进行微型热压实验，以检验我们的数值模拟程序的预测能力。这项关于微/纳米级聚合物制造工艺的基础性研究将进一步为制造微流控设备这一迅速崛起的行业奠定科学基础。这类设备是微型系统，它控制小体积(纳升或皮升)的流体(气体或液体)通过“芯片”上的微毛细通道流动，该“芯片”与计算机化的分析仪器集成在一起。这些设备具有主动和被动微结构特征，可控制流体的流动和混合，以在小容量材料上产生物理、化学和微生物反应，并已开始用于广泛的应用：例如，生化分析、毛细管电泳法、细胞计数和分选、细胞生长、生物物种检测、基因组学、液相色谱，甚至计算。这项研究还应该能够支持其他关键产业的发展，如基于聚合物的光子和纳米光学器件。

Our overall aim is to develop engineering science-based simulation tools andprocessing procedures for the production of polymeric microfluidic devices with micron- and sub-micron-sized capillaries. The specific process to be considered is micro-hot-embossing. We propose the following tasks: (a) Conduct experiments to characterize the temperature and strain-rate-dependent mechanical behavior of amorphous polymers, e.g., polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC), for application to hot-embossing. (b) Formulation of thermo-mechanically-coupled, large-deformation, visco-elastic-plastic constitutive models for amorphous polymers. (c) Development of a finite-element-based simulation and design capability for micro-hot-embossing. (d) Conduct micro-hot-embossing experiments to check the predictive capability of our numerical simulation procedures. This fundamental study on polymer manufacturing processes at the micro/nano-scale will further the scientific underpinnings of the rapidly emerging industry for the manufacture of microfluidic devices. Such devices are Microsystems, which control the flow of small volumes (nano- or pico-liters) of fluids (gases or liquids) through micro-capillary channels on a ``chip'', which is integrated with computerized analytical instruments. The devices contain active and passive microstructural features that control the flow and mixing of the fluids to produce physical, chemical and microbiological reactions on small volumes of materials, and are beginning to be used in a wide variety of applications: e.g., biochemical assays, capillary electrophoresis, cell counting and sorting, cell growth, detection of biological species, genomics, liquid chromatography, and even computation. The research should also be able to support the development of other key industries, such as polymer-based photonic and nano-optical devices.