RESUMEN
We discuss thermoforming of thermoplastic polymers for the hot-embossing lithographic (HEL) fabrication of microfluidic chips near equilibrium conditions that minimize elastic recoil for optimal motif replication. While HEL is often simplistically described as the transfer of micro- and nano-motifs into heat-softened thermoplastic materials, we describe our rational approach to selecting appropriate processing parameters.
RESUMEN
The transition of MEMS technology to nano fabrication is a solution to the growing demand for smaller and high-density feature sizes in the nanometer scale. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) techniques for fabricating micro- and nano-features are discussed including hot embossing lithography (HEL), UV Molding (UVM) and micro contact printing (microCP). Recent results in micro and nano-pattern transfer are presented where features ranged from < 100 nm to several centimeters. We also present a comparative study between standard glass microfluidic chips and their HEL counterparts by metrology. Hot-embossed microfluidic chips are shown to be faithful replicates of their parent stamps. NIL is presented as a promising avenue for low-cost, high throughput micro and nano-device fabrication.