Novel Characteristics of Multifunctional Fluid Filters Fabricated by High-Energy Synchrotron Radiation Lithography

A new method using multifunctional fluid filters with through-capillary arrays for high throughput and large-scale integrated microfluidics is proposed. The method utilizes a liquid's surface tension and fluid flows perpendicular to a substrate using a fluid filter. Utilizing this method, we can minimize the space consumption of microchannels, and enhance the flexibility of channel design, because these are not extant on the surface of substrates as in traditional microfluidics, but are through-capillary arrays passing through the substrates. In addition, the passive multifunctional characteristics of the fluid filter are favorable for the integration of microfluidics. Therefore, the integration number can be increased from the previous order of hundreds to thousands or more. We conducted a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to examine the feasibility of vertical fluid flow operation; the multifunctionality of the fluid filter as a microvalve, a microchannel and a micromixer was estimated. The fabrication of the fluid filter by deep X-ray lithography and the vertical fluid flow operation were successfully conducted and the high-throughput properties of the vertical fluid flow were demonstrated.