Photosensitive Poly(Dimethylsiloxane) (Photopdms) for Rapid and Simple Polymer Fabrication

In this paper, we report a new and simple method of patterning polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) directly under normal ambient light for rapid prototyping of disposable microfluidic lab-on-a-chips (LOCs). The photodefinable PDMS (photoPDMS) is positive-acting and only sensitive to light below 365 nm, which permits processing outside a gold room. A parametric study was conducted to optimize this novel fabrication technique. Features as small as 100 mum were successfully fabricated using photoPDMS. To further demonstrate the potential of this novel technique, thin (< 30 mum) free-standing patterned PDMS films. Successful demonstration of this novel process presents a feasibly simpler alternative approach for rapid prototyping of disposable microfluidic biochips for lab-on-a-chip applications.