Polymer-based fabrication techniques for enclosed microchannels in biomedical applications

Investigations and analyses of body fluids like serum or whole blood are essential tasks in biomedical research in order to understand and diagnose diseases, to conduct pharmacological tests or to culture cells. Therefore, microfluidic systems provide a favorable tool for processing fluid samples as they allow downscaling of sample volumes and handling of single fluid components such as cells or proteins. For this reason, we present simple fabrication techniques for microchannel systems using polymer materials only. On the one hand, these materials are low-priced compared to conventional silicon or glass. On the other hand, they do not show any interaction with biological fluids. Furthermore, their transparency guarantees an easy observability of all processes within the system. Depending on the channel dimensions, different adhesion bonding techniques for closing of the systems are applied, whereas the fluidic interfaces are included. Summing up, we provide complete fabrication processes for fluidic systems which are simpler and more cost-effective than conventional methods and yet cope with all essential requirements for microfluidic applications.