Molding and bonding of thin film parylene for flexible microfluidics

Abstract

We developed a molding and bonding technique for parylene thin-film microfluidics using initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) bonding for flexible microfluidics applications. Flexible microfluidic can be integrated with flexible electronics and provide new function with tunable 3D shape. Using fabricated flexible channel consisting of a-few-micrometers-thick parylene layers, we achieved a minimum bending radius as small as ∼150 μm without leakage or significant deformation. We formed tunable 3D curvature by rolling the channel around a needle to induce Dean flow mixing, by which we demonstrated that tunable microchannel shapes in 3D can provide a tunable functionality (i.e., sample mixing) of microfluidic device.