Embossing technique application

Hot embossing technique had been commonly used for the microstructuring of polymers in industry. Before, it was adapted for microfluidic applications due to its relatively simple process, wide selection of materials, and availability of facility. 

Mathur, A., Roy, S.S., McLaughhn, J.A., 2010. Transferring vertically aligned carbon nanotubes onto a polymeric substrate using a hot embossing technique for microfluidic applications. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 7 (48), 1129-1133. 

Melt pressing is a first technique which results in thin polymer films. Polymer granules are heated between electrically heated plates, which can be forced against each other. Since this is a discontinuous process, it has little industrial application. However, if the mould plates are micro-structured, structured polymer sheets can be developed. In this case, the term hot-embossing is generally applied. 

This discussion will be limited to those lithography methods that utilize the application of external radiation (i.e., optical exposure, e-beam exposure, or X-ray exposure) and will not include imprint hthography techniques such as hot embossing. Thick-film hthography is generally used to refer to hthographic processes that utilize photoresist film thicknesses greater than 5 p, in thickness. 

Recently, microfluidic systems and biochips made from low-cost polymeric materials such as poly(dimethylsilo-xane) (PDMS) and poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA), as opposed to traditional materials such as glass or silicon, have become more and more prevalent. The primary attractiveness of these materials is that they tend to involve simpler and significantly less expensive manufacturing techniques (for example casting, injection and replica molding, and hot embossing) however, they are also amenable to surface modification, and the wide variety of physiochemical properties allows the matching of specific polymers to particular applications. While the... 

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