Techniques for microfluidic channel fabrication in soda-lime glass and fused quartz using femtosecond laser ablation and ablation in conjunction with polymer coating for surface roughness improvement were tested. Systematic experiments were done to characterize how process variables (laser fluence, scanning speed and focus spot overlap, and material properties) affect the machining feature size and quality. Laser fluence and focus spot overlap showed the strongest influence on channel depth and roughness. At high fluence, the surface roughness was measured to be between 395 nm and 731 nm RMS. At low fluence, roughness decreased to 100 nm-350 nm RMS and showed a greater dependence on overlap. The surface roughness of laser ablation was also dependent on the material properties. For the same laser ablation parameters, soda-lime glass surfaces were smoother than fused quartz. For some applications, especially those using quartz, smoother channels are desired. A hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) polymer coating was applied and the roughness of the coated channels was improved to 10-50 nm RMS.

In this paper, a critical modification to a polymer based affordable split-and-recombination static micromixer is described. To evaluate the improvement, both the original and the modified design were carefully investigated using an experimental setup and numerical modeling approach. The structure of the micromixer was designed to take advantage of the process capabilities of both ultraprecision micromachining and microinjection molding process. Specifically, the original and the modified design were numerically simulated using commercial finite element method software ANSYS CFX to assist the re-designing of the micromixers. The simulation results have shown that both designs are capable of performing mixing while the modified design has a much improved performance. Mixing experiments with two different fluids were carried out using the original and the modified mixers again showed a significantly improved mixing uniformity by the latter. The measured mixing coefficient for the original design was 0.11, and for the improved design it was 0.065. The developed manufacturing process based on ultraprecision machining and microinjection molding processes for device fabrication has the advantage of high-dimensional precision, low cost and manufacturing flexibility.