Hybrid tooling technologies for injection molded and hot embossed polymeric microfluidic devices

The growing complexity of microfluidic devices is currently leading to an increased dimensional scale dynamics, i.e. the range of sizes of features on the microfluidic device is steadily increasing, from centimeter-sized features like reservoirs over millimeter-sized features like fluidic connections and micrometer-sized features like microchannels to nanometer-sized features like surface textures. In order manufacture these devices with polymer replication technologies like injection molding and hot embossing, molding tools (masters) have to be fabricated which contain the same structural dynamic range. Often, this is not possible using a single tooling technology. We therefore present examples of such tools which have been fabricated using two techniques on the same master structure, namely precision mechanical machining, single-point diamond turning (SPDT) and stereolithography.