Comparison of Nail Polish Meth(Acrylates) (MA) Gel Photoresist and Vinyl Adhesive Paper for Low-Cost Microfluidics Fabrication

There are variety methods and materials for fabrication of the master mold for microfluidic system. In this report, two simple low-cost methods for fabrication of master molds for microfluidic chips are described and compared in quality of molds, thickness and resolution of micro-channels, design complexity, error tolerance and executive time. The first approach can create a master mold just in 5 min by using cutting plotter to cut the design out from vinyl adhesive paper based on the previous design; after that, the assembly attached into the petri dish to fabricate the complete mold. The second one is using nail polish meth(acrylates) (MA) gel as photoresist material to alter expensive SU-8 photoresist in soft photolithography technique and LED-UV light. These processes are simple, short time prototyping, inexpensive materials and no requirement for sophisticated equipment. Both methods can achieve the channels with the depth up to 80 μm. However, the channels of UV gel method are less affected by changes in temperature which enables more complex design as narrow as 200 μm in width compared to 500 μm of craft cutter method. The comparison of two proposed methods shows that UV gel satisfies the important demand for microfluidic master mold fabrication: low cost, possibility of more complex pattern in short time (15 min).