Fabrication of 3-D microchannel for biomems and micro systems application

This paper reports a new technology to implement complex PDMS microchannels, which are simply constructed using three-dimensional photoresist structures as mold for PDMS replica process. The process utilizes LOR resist as a sacrificial layer to levitate the structural photoresist and multi-step exposure to control the thicknesses of photoresist structures. Various shapes of photoresist structures were successfully fabricated. Using the PDMS replica method, the three-dimensional photoresist structures are demonstrated to be applicable for implementing complex microchannels in PDMS. In addition, more complex multilevel microchannels are constructed by bonding two PDMS layers with just single PDMS alignment.