Polymer Stamps for Imprinting Nanopatterns in Polymer Substrate.

Using a silicone or metallic stamp for imprinting multiscale patterns comprising micro down to nanoscale patterns into polymer substrates often results in significant deformation in the molded substrate and loss of pattern transfer fidelity for nanopatterns. In the worst case, the expensive stamp can also be damaged. One method to reduce the problem is to use polymer as the stamp material, which will reduce both adhesion and thermal stress generated at the stamp/substrate interface. In this paper, stamps made of three different polymer materials, i.e., polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), PPGDA-based UV resin and TPGDA-based UV-resin, were fabricated from the same master containing nanofluidic structures and the replication fidelity from the master, polymer stamps, to thermal-imprinted poly(methyl methacrylate) substrate (PMMA) was compared. The largest loss of pattern fidelity occurs in the thermal imprinting step. Polymer stamps with higher Young's moduli result in a better fidelity in pattern transfer. With TPGDA-based UV resin stamps, multiscale structures with a nanochannel with minimum width and height of -70 nm can be imprinted onto PMMA substrate together with macro-scale patterns by a single nanoimprinting processes.

3D nanomolding for lab-on-a-chip applications.

The ability to decorate microfluidic channel walls with additional micro/nanostructures becomes important as a means to modify the flow behavior, such as mixing and pressure drop, as well as to enhance the reactivity of bio-reactions to the surface in lab-on-a-chip applications. Despite the ability of mass production at low cost, conventional micro and nanomolding techniques are limited to the patterning of planar or slightly curved polymer substrates. Here we show a two-step molding technique, named 3D nanomolding, which allows the patterning of arbitrarily hierarchical multiscale structures, even nanostructures formed on the vertical sidewalls of microfluidic channels. In the first molding step, an ultra-thin intermediate polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) stamp is produced by spin-coating and curing PDMS prepolymer on a pre-nanopatterned poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate, which is followed by the second molding step using the primary PDMS stamp containing microstructures. Various hierarchical micro and nanostructures are demonstrated, which include a biomimetic superhydrophobic structure in a lotus leaf surface to modify the surface wetting property and microfluidic channels where the walls are patterned with nanostructures. Despite the presence of nanostructures on the top surface, 3D nanomolded microchannels could be sealed well with a nanopatterned PMMA cover plate using solvent bonding to form enclosed microfluidic devices. The results indicate that the 3D nanomolding technique is suitable for decorating microchannel walls for lab-on-a-chip applications.

Complete plastic nanofluidic devices for DNA analysis via direct imprinting with polymer stamps.

Development of all polymer-based nanofluidic devices using replication technologies, which is a prerequisite for providing devices for a larger user base, is hampered by undesired substrate deformation associated with the replication of multi-scale structures. Therefore, most nanofluidic devices have been fabricated in glass-like substrates or in a polymer resist layer coated on a substrate. This letter presents a rapid, high fidelity direct imprinting process to build polymer nanofluidic devices in a single step. Undesired substrate deformation during imprinting was significantly reduced through the use of a polymer stamp made from a UV-curable resin. The integrity of the enclosed all polymer-based nanofluidic system was verified by a fluorescein filling experiment and translocation/stretching of λ-DNA molecules through the nanochannels. It was also found that the funnel-like design of the nanochannel inlet significantly improved the entrance of DNA molecules into nanochannels compared to an abrupt nanochannel/microfluidic network interface.