Fabrication of Au sidewall micropatterns using Si-reinforced PDMS molds

Existing lithographic approaches are good at patterning the top surface of a substrate, but not suited to producing patterns on the sidewalls of microstructures. In this work, we have developed a new method to generate sidewall micropatterns using Si-reinforced polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) molds through hot-embossing processes. We have successfully produced one and two arrays of 10 μm Au dots, respectively, on the 42- and 85-μm-high sidewalls of 300-μm-wide polymer channels. We have also explored the possibility to fabricate 110-μm-wide Au wires on these channel sidewalls.