Analysis of Deformation of Thermoplastics by Using Thermomechanical Process

Abstract

Nano fluidics has been a major field of research for application in areas like single molecule detection. Most of the research efforts have been concentrated in developing novel nano channel fabrication techniques. Most of these fabrication techniques developed are either expensive or time consuming.NA novel, low-cost fabrication technique to generate sub-micrometer wide channels in thermoplastic chips with potential application in single molecule detection is demonstrated. A custom, mechanical rig was designed, fabricated and optimized to produce a predefined thermo-mechanical deformation in thermo-plastic micro channel chips. Rectangular micro channels with different shapes and sizes were deformed using this rig to optimize the initial microchannel dimensions. Low aspect ratio (height: width) channels with smaller initial dimensions exhibit more potential to reach sub-micrometer widths. However, the nano channel fabrication consistency was adversely affected by manufacturing and assembly tolerances.