Xurography: rapid prototyping of microstructures using a cutting plotter

This paper introduces xurography, or "razor writing," as a novel rapid prototyping technique for creating microstructures in various films. This technique uses a cutting plotter traditionally used in the sign industry for cutting graphics in adhesive vinyl films. A cutting plotter with an addressable resolution of 10 μm was used to cut microstructures in various films with thicknesses ranging from 25 to 1000 μm. Positive features down to 35 μm and negative features down to 18 μm were cut in a 25 μm thick material. Higher aspect ratios of 5.2 for positive features and 8 for negative features were possible in a 360 μm thick material. A simple model correlating material properties to minimum feature size is introduced. Multilayered microstructures cut from pressure sensitive and thermal activated adhesive films were laminated in less than 30 min without photolithographic processes or chemicals. Potential applications of these microstructures are explored including: shadow masking, electroplating, micromolds for PDMS, and multilayered three-dimensional (3-D) channels. This inexpensive method can rapidly prototype microfluidic devices or tertiary fluid connections for higher resolution devices. [1488].