Mems mixer as an example of a novel construction method of microfluidics by discrete microparts

• A construction method of microfluidics with a discrete MEMS structure is proposed.
• The proposed method is useful for cost reduction.
• The method can fabricate the structure that is unable to fabricate by typical photolithography.

This paper describes a novel approach to construct and/or functionalize a microfluidic chip with discrete microparts that are microfabricated small enough to place them in a microchannel. A preliminary demonstration was shown as a passive mixer. Microparts of several hundred micrometers were fabricated by double-sided etching with ICP RIE. The parts were manually placed in a typical Y-shaped PDMS microchannel. Fluorescence observation revealed that the constructed microfluidics had the same mixing ability as a fully silicon MEMS mixer. The configuration that is unattainable by the normal preassembled structure can also be fabricated.