Bonding PMMA microfluidics using commercial microwave ovens

In this paper, a novel low-cost, rapid substrate-bonding technique is successfully applied to polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) microfluidics bonding for the first time. This technique uses a thin intermediate metallic microwave susceptor layer at the interface of the bonding site (microchannels) which produces localized heating required for bonding during microwave irradiation. The metallic susceptor pattern is designed using a multiphysics simulation model developed in ANSYS Multiphysics software (high-frequency structural simulation (HFSS) coupled with ANSYS-Thermal). In our experiments, the required microwave energy for bonding is delivered using a relatively inexpensive, widely accessible commercial microwave oven. Using this technique, simple PMMA microfluidics prototypes are successfully bonded and sealed in less than 35 seconds with a minimum measured bond strength of 1.375 MPa.