The emerging field of deformable microfluidics widely employed in the Lab-on-a-Chip and MEMS communities offers an opportunity to study a relatively under-examined physics. The main objective of this work is to provide a deeper insight into the underlying coupled fluid-solid interactions of a low-Reynolds-number, i.e. Re∼ O(10 −2 -10 +1 ), fluid flow through a shallow deformable microchannel with ultra-low height-to-widthratios, i.e. O(10 −3 ). The fabricated deformable microchannels of several microns in height and few millimeters in width, whose aspect ratio is about two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the previous reports, allow us to investigate the fluid flow characteristics spanning a variety of distinct regimes from small wall deflections, where the deformable microchannel resembles its corresponding rigid one, to wall deflections much larger than the original height, where the height-independent characteristic behavior emerges. The effects of the microchannel geometry, membrane properties, and pressure difference across the channel are represented by a lumped variable called flexibility parameter. Under the same pressure drop across different channels, any difference in their geometries is reflected into the flexibility parameter of the channels, which can potentially cause the devices to operate under distinct regimes of the fluid-solid characteristics. For a fabricated microchannel with given membrane properties and channel geometry, on the other hand, a sufficiently large change in the applied pressure difference can alter the flow-structure behavior from one characteristic regime to another. By appropriately introducing the flexibility parameter and the dimensionless volumetric flow rate, a master curve is found for the fluid flow through any long and shallow deformable microchannel. A criterion is also suggested for determining whether the coupled or decoupled fluid-solid mechanics should be considered.

Adhesive bonding is a key technique to create microfluidic devices when two separate substrates are used to form microchannels. Among many adhesives explored in microchannel fabrication, SU8 has been widely used as an adhesive layer for sealing the microchannel sidewalls. The majority of the available SU8-based bonding methods, however, suffer from the difficulties associated with sealing of two important types of the microchannel architecture: (1) shallow microchannels with small patterns on a large area, and (2) microchannels with ultra-low aspect ratios (e.g. 6 mm in width and m in height). In this paper, a new bonding paradigm based upon the low-temperature and low-pressure SU8 bonding, consisting of two steps of sealing using a thin-SU8-coated PET film and bonding reinforcement using a SU8-coated glass slide, is proposed to resolve the aforementioned difficulties. Since it does not need complicated instruments such as a wafer bonding machine and a lamination device, the developed bonding paradigm is convenient and economical. We successfully demonstrate the compatibility of the proposed bonding paradigm with the two microchannel fabrication approaches based on the glass wet etching and the SU8 photo-lithography, where small microchannels with the innermost surfaces fully made of SU8 are obtained. A theoretical model is employed to better investigate the flow characteristics and the structural behavior of the microchannel including the PET film deformation, strain and von Mises stress distributions, bonding strength, etc. Moreover, we demonstrate the fabrication of the multi-height deep–shallow microchannel sidewalls and their sealing using the SU8-coated PET film. Finally, as a proof-of-concept device, a microfluidic filter consisting of the double-height deep–shallow microchannel is fabricated for separation of 3 µm and 10 µm particles.

Fluid-structure interactions in low-Reynolds-number flows have received an increasing interest due to emerging bio-applications of deformable microfluidics. We utilize the lubrication theory and wide-beam framework to develop a one-dimensional coupled fluid-solid-mechanics model for the prediction of the characteristic behavior of compressible fluid flows through deformable microchannels. An explicit relationship is extracted for the mass flow rate as a function of pressure difference across a microchannel, undeformed channel dimensions, and properties of channel’s ceiling such as thickness, modulus of elasticity, and Poisson’s ratio. The resulting fifth-order algebraic equation is also solved numerically to obtain the pressure distribution within the microchannel. As a special case for compressible fluid flows, the characteristics of ideal gas flows are extracted from the general model. Rigid and deformable microchannels are fabricated, and the mass flow rates of air through the channels are measured under various pressure differences across the channels. The proposed model predicts the mass flow rate with an acceptable accuracy. Our experimental and theoretical results highlight the importance of fluid compressibility and microchannel deformability, demonstrating that neglecting either of them under sufficiently large pressure differences can lead to erroneous results. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first theoretical model simultaneously addressing both fluid compressibility and microchannel deformability for an equilibrium pressure-driven compressible fluid flow in microscale.

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