Powder blasting for the realisation of microchips for bio-analytic applications

We introduce powder blasting for the fabrication of glass microchips. Powder blasting is a fast and cheap technique with which we pattern channels in sodalime and pyrex glass with a width down to 100 mum. We combine the technique with appropriate bonding procedures to realise sealed microchannel structures. We study the transport of fluorescent dye solutions and fluorescent beads within channels made by powder blasting and in 'classical' channels made by HF-etching. We find a remarkable difference in sign of the electric field induced flow for both types of channels and explain the observed strong plug broadening effects in the powder blasted channels. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.