Klapperich Lab:Hot Press Wire Imprinted Microfluidic Chips

Overview
Fabricate wire-imprinted microfluidic chips on the hot press.

Materials

 * Mechanical Hot Press
 * Zeonex beads
 * 2 removable nickel plates
 * 4 cm long segments of 0.38 mm wire
 * Metal tongs

Procedure
plate on the bottom platen.
 * 1) Set the temperature of the mechanical hot press to 350&deg;F.
 * 2) Center a circular arrangement of zeonex beads one layer thick onto one of the metal plates.
 * 3) Place the metal plate onto the bottom hot press platen.
 * 4) Carefully align the second plate on top of the first plate without disturbing the collection of zeonex beads.
 * 5) Hot press the zeonex for 5 minutes at 250 psi.
 * 6) Remove the metal plates and let them cool enough to be handled.
 * 7) Peel the zeonex disk off the metal plates.
 * 8) Set the zeonex disk back onto one of the removable metal plates.
 * 9) Take 0.38 mm wire cut to a length of 2 cm and arrange four of the wire pieces parallel to each other, staggering them by about 1 cm on the zeonex disk.
 * 10) Place the metal plate onto the bottom hot press platen.
 * 11) Carefully align the second plate on top of the first plate without disturbing the arrangement of wire segments.
 * 12) Reduce the temperature of the hot press to 320&deg;F.
 * 13) Hot press the zeonex for 2 minutes at 500 psi.
 * 14) After removing the metal plates, let the plates cool enough to be handled.
 * 15) Peel the wire imprinted zeonex disk off of the metal plates.
 * 16) Pop the wire pieces out of the zeonex disk.
 * 17) Drill, from the grooved side, a hole at each end of an imprinted channel so that the hole overlaps the channel slightly.
 * 18) Using tweezers, remove any residual plastic from around the drilled hole.
 * Bonding
 * 1) Set the temperature of the hot press to 276&deg;F.
 * 2) Place an imprinted chip on top of a microfluidic chip base with the grooved side facing the chip base.
 * 3) Place the stack onto one of the removable metal plates, and set the metal
 * 1) Set the second metal plate on top of the first plate.
 * 2) Preheat the chip by pumping the handle until the hot press platens meet, but the pressure registers 0 psi for 1 minute.
 * 3) Bond the base and the imprinted chip by hot pressing for 2 minutes at 550 psi.