Bonding of thermoplastic microfluidic device by water assistance

We present a water-assisted microwave bonding (H2O-& mu;Wave bonding) process for sealing thermoplastic microfluidic devices. We use water as the bonding reagent to assist the formation of covalent bonds after surface activation and water evaporation procedures. In surface activation step, we exam UV/Ozone and O2 plasma surface treatments and their effects of the surface wettability, optical transmissivity, surface morphology, and surface chemistry on a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrate in H2O-& mu;Wave bonding. After surface activation, water evaporation step was performed to form the bonds. The bonding can be simply formed by leaving the surface-activated pair in the room environment after water application. We examined the bonding strength and coverage of PMMA by both room temperature drying and microwave annealing approaches in H2O-& mu;Wave bonding. Finally, stability and multilayer bonding were also tested to evaluate the quality of H2O-& mu;Wave bonding.

Automated summary

We propose a water-assisted microwave bonding (H2O-μWave bonding) process for sealing thermoplastic microfluidic devices. Water is used as the bonding reagent to assist the formation of covalent bonds after surface activation and water evaporation procedures. The effects of UV/Ozone and O2 plasma surface treatments on the surface properties of a PMMA substrate in H2O-μWave bonding are examined. Bonding strength, coverage, stability, and multilayer bonding are further evaluated.