Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
9776368 | Synthetic Metals | 2005 | 4 Pages |
Abstract
In order to observe in real-time and to accurately measure the filling speed during the capillary process in planar microfluidic devices, we integrated a ruler in the silicon master structures, side by side with the channels, and replicated it into the elastomeric elements. The time dependence of the covered length (z, t) and of the filling rate (v, t) under different temperature and surface functionalization conditions was then exactly determined by optical microscopy. This allowed us to quantitatively assess the strong dependence of v on the process environmental conditions, and to discard in real-time the presence of impurities on employed substrates, thus allowing one to strongly improve the throughput of the microfluidic-based soft lithography for nanotechnology applications.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Materials Science
Biomaterials
Authors
Dario Pisignano, Francesca Di Benedetto, Luana Persano, Elisa Mele, Roberto Cingolani,