NiColoy: a versatile electroforming process for biosensor fabrication by embossing

High strength, hard, electroformed stampers are formed from a silicon master using Nickel-Cobalt electrodeposited alloy. They are found to replicate structures from sub-micron dimensions like optical gratings and to hundreds of microns like micro-fluidic channels without distortion. The channels and optical elements constitute building blocks of many biosensors. Electroform is a negative replica of the silicon master and a low cost reproduction of the master is obtained by embossing it onto plastic substrates. We find that damage free reproduction in the plastic substrate is achieved when the aspect ratio of the structures is less than 3.