Reversible bonding for microfluidic devices with UV release tape

For closed-channel microfluidic chips, a layer of the cover plate is usually bonded to the substrate layer to enclose the fabricated microstructures on the surface of the substrate. Various irreversible and reversible bonding approaches have been invented for glass, thermoplastic, and PDMS-based microfluidic devices in the recent decade, including anodic bonding, thermal fusion bonding, chemical solvent assisted bonding, sandwich adhesion layer, and oxygen plasma treatment. Currently, most of the reversible bonding methods have to make compromise on bonding strength to achieve the reversible bonding between the substrate and cover plate. In this study, a novel reversible bonding method is proposed with the help of a UV curable release tape, compared with previous methods on reversible bonding using a magnetic or adhesive layer, the proposed method offers a higher bonding strength and easily debond with a simple UV exposure process. The proposed reversible bonding method using UV release tape is inspired by the application of UV release tape in the wafer dicing process in MEMS and IC industry. For the demonstration of the proposed reversible bonding method for microfluidic devices, conventional and hybrid reversible bonding between thermoplastics and glass were achieved, the bonding strength was also measured with different UV radiation doses, the biocompatibility of the UV release tape was tested, finally, several microfluidic devices were fabricated with the proposed reversible bonding method.

Automated summary

A novel reversible bonding method using UV curable release tape is proposed in this study, which offers a higher bonding strength and can be easily debonded with a simple UV exposure process.