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Thermal bonding of polyimide to form sealed microchannels

Polyimide has high stability, so it is attractive for use in disposable microfluidic chips. Also, it has high resistance to soft X-ray irradiation. However, its high stability makes processing polyimide difficult. In particular, sealed microchannels are difficult to fabricate; additives are usually required. Here, a technique for sealing microchannels by thermal bonding using ordinary polyimide without any special functionalities is developed. First, as a guide to form sealed microchannels in polyimide microfluidic chips, optimum bonding conditions are determined by measuring bonding strength through tensile testing. Trench structures are formed by laser ablation on the surface of a polyimide substrate, and then the polyimide substrate is bonded thermally with a polyimide film under optimal bonding conditions. The water-tightness of the resulting chip is checked by feeding a liquid into the sealed microchannels. The bonding conditions obtained in the tensile test form sealed microchannels on the polyimide microfluidic chip. Using our technique for fabricating a polyimide chip, it will be possible to easily observe microstructures in a cell containing water in a soft X-ray microscope.