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DOI: 10.1039/b909742b
A low-cost, manufacturable, thermally actuated, plastic microfluidic valve has been developed. The
valve contains an encapsulated, temperature-sensitive fluid, which expands, deflecting a thin
elastomeric film into a fluidic channel to control fluid flow. The power input for thermal expansion
of each microfluidic valve can be controlled using a printed circuit board (PCB)-based controller, which
is suitable for mass production and large-scale integration. A plastic microfluidic device with such
valves was fabricated using compression molding and thermal lamination. The operation of the valves
was investigated by measuring a change in the microchannels ionic conduction current mediated
by the resistance variation corresponding to the deflection of the microvalve. Valve closing was also
confirmed by the disappearance of fluorescence when a fluorescent solution was displaced in the valve
region. Valve operation was characterized for heater power ranging from 36 mW to 80 mW. When
the valve was actuating, the local channel temperature was 10 to 19 C above the ambient temperature
depending on the heater power used. Repetitive valve operations (up to 50 times) have been
demonstrated with a flow resulting from a hydrostatic head. Valve operation was tested for a flow rate
of 0.334.7 mL/min.
3082 | Lab Chip, 2009, 9, 30823087 This journal is The Royal Society of Chemistry 2009
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addition, PDMS is incompatible with many reagents.29 This photolithography and wet chemical etching. By electroplating on
work intends to address both disadvantages by reporting on the the glass substrate, a nickel alloy mold was generated and then
design, fabrication, and characterization of microvalves actuated employed to produce plastic parts from COC resins (Zeonor
by a temperature-sensitive liquid heated with microfabricated 1020R) using a Carver hydraulic press (Wabash, IN). A CNC
thermal resistors. The resistors are addressed and individually milling machine was employed to trim the plastic parts into 1 3
powered by a printed circuit board (PCB) based controller, in. substrates and drill 2 mm-diameter wells at the channel ends.
a packaging technique currently used in the semiconductor and All channels in the microfluidic device were 110 mm wide and
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computer industry. A cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) was used 45 mm deep. After cleaning, the channel layer was ready for the
for fabricating the microfluidic devices and microvalves for its subsequent lamination step.
compatibility with chemical and biological applications. COC We used pressure sensitive adhesive tape 9019 (3M, Minne-
has been exploited by several research groups3034 for micro- apolis, MN) as the elastomeric film. According to the manufac-
fluidic studies and is commonly used in industry for turer, the tape is comprised of 13 mm-thick polyethylene
manufacturing compact discs and plastic lenses. terephthalate (PET) film coated with adhesive on both sides. The
The principle of the microvalve in this work is illustrated in tensile modulus of PET is (46) 105 psi.35 To laminate PET
Fig. 1. When heat is supplied to a temperature-sensitive fluid, with the channel layer, the liner from one side of the PET film
volumetric expansion of the fluid deflects an elastomeric film into was first removed. The film was laminated in a way to ensure firm
a microchannel. As a result, the channel is blocked and the valve contact with the channel layer. The two layer assembly was then
is closed. Heat input to the temperature-sensitive fluid is supplied left overnight to reach full bond strength.
through micro-fabricated heaters. The power supply to these The valve layer was made from 250 mm-thick Zeonor 1020R
heaters can be controlled using a PCB based controller. PCB- film from PLITEK (Des Plaines, IN). The film was cut into a size
controlled valve actuation will enable large scale integration of of 1 3 inch and drilled with 2 mm diameter holes at locations
these valves for high throughput applications and is also suitable where valve actuation was desired. After cleaning, the valve-layer
for industrial mass production. was laminated with the other adhesive side of the PET film that
had been assembled with the channel layer. The center of the
Experimental cavity in the valve-layer was aligned with the microfluidic
channel in the device. The assembled device was then left in clean
Device design and fabrication air to increase the adhesive bond strength. The geometry of the
Fig. 1a shows the schematic of a device consisting of four layers. valve cavity was chosen based on the expansion calculation as
The top layer contains microfluidic channels (channel layer). discussed below; the relationship between the cavity size and the
The second layer is an elastomeric film (elastomer layer). The fluidic channel geometry is expected to be studied in the future.
third layer contains cavities where a temperature-sensitive fluid is The heater layer is a 250 mm-thick Zeonor 1020R film
encapsulated (valve layer). The bottom layer is a plastic thin patterned with micro-heaters. To create micro-heaters,
a 1000 A -thick Au film was deposited onto a cleaned plastic film
film with patterned heaters (heater layer).
The channel layer was fabricated using the molding procedure by sputtering. Serpentine Au resistors were then obtained by
described previously.34 Briefly, a photomask pattern was photolithographic patterning and etching. The cleaned heater
designed using AutoCAD and then reproduced in glass using layer was then bonded with the previously assembled channel
layer-elastomeric film-valve layer. Solvent bonding was used
with decalin, following the procedure reported previously.36 The
solvent was introduced to the bonding areas only using the
microstamping approach.37 The assembly was then heated at
60 C for 20 min to complete the solvent bonding.
Temperature-sensitive fluid
3M Fluorinert FC40 (boiling point: 155 C) was selected as the
temperature-sensitive fluid.38 The cavity in the valve layer was
filled after the 4-layer device was assembled. An access hole was
drilled in the open space between the microheater traces in the
heater layer after patterning the micro-heaters. The location of
the hole was marked in the Au resistor pattern when it was
Fig. 1 (a) Schematic of a normally-open microfluidic valve consisting of designed. Since the cavity was very small (0.79 mL), a vacuum
four layers. The top channel layer contains microfluidic channels. The filling method was developed as follows. The device was
second layer is an elastomeric film. The third layer is a valve layer that
immersed in a Fluorinert solution in a beaker while the filling
houses a temperature-sensitive fluid. The bottom heater layer contains
hole was about 12 mm below the liquid level. This beaker was
resistive micro-heaters patterned on a cover film. When power is supplied
to the micro-heaters, the temperature-sensitive fluid expands, deflecting then placed in a vacuum desiccator, which was pumped down to
the elastomeric film into the channel. (b) The valve is closed after the 20 in. Hg pressure. The air in the cavity was replaced with Flu-
heater is turned on. (c) Three-dimensional cartoon showing 4-layer valve orinert when the vacuum was slowly released. The cavity filled
structure (note that it is upside down for easy visualization). The drawing with Fluorinert was inspected under a microscope, followed by
is not to scale. sealing with a tiny drop of RBC2001 epoxy (Warwick, RI).
This journal is The Royal Society of Chemistry 2009 Lab Chip, 2009, 9, 30823087 | 3083
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Valve operation challenges. The first one is to bond four layers of plastics
together. Initially, an all COC device structure using multiple-
After completing the assembly of the four-layer microvalve, the
bonded layers of COC was investigated. It showed partial actu-
inlet of the microchannel was constructed using an Upchurch
ation owing to the very low flexibility of the 100 mm-thick COC
Nanoport (Oak Harbour, WA), which was used for connecting
membrane and consequently needed a high operation tempera-
the microchannel to a pump. The contact pads of the micro-
ture. Therefore, we replaced the 100 mm-thick COC membrane
heater were connected to a custom PCB controller or directly to
layer with a 13 mm-thick PET film as discussed in the experi-
a 5 V power supply (Agilent E3644A, Santa Clara, CA). A
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3084 | Lab Chip, 2009, 9, 30823087 This journal is The Royal Society of Chemistry 2009
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Operation temperatures the device geometry and the fluid used in this work. The calcu-
lation was based on the volumetric coefficient of thermal
The microvalves operation temperature is critical to its thermal
expansion, a,
actuation. It must be considerably lower than the glass transition
temperature of the plastic materials used (e.g., 105 C for Zeonor DV
a
1020R). In addition, the temperature in the microchannel should V ,DT
be less than the maximum temperature allowed by the sample of where V is volume and T is temperature. Values used for calcu-
interest (e.g., some enzymes denature at a temperature in excess of
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Actuation time
Fig. 3 Temperatures monitored at three positions, in the microchannel, The valve actuation time was expected to be shortened when
in the cavity housing a temperature-sensitive fluid, and adjacent to the a higher heater power was used since the time to achieve the
heater, are shown as a function of the heater power supplied. The inset necessary temperature change and thermal expansion of the
shows the approximate locations of thermocouples relative to the FC40 would be shorter. As a result, we studied the valve actu-
microvalve. ation time as a function of the input heater power (Fig. 5). The
This journal is The Royal Society of Chemistry 2009 Lab Chip, 2009, 9, 30823087 | 3085
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hour. The results in Fig. 5 also indicate that the valve can be
Fig. 4 (a) Temporal profiles of the electric ionic conduction current operated over a wide range of power inputs. The valve actuation
through the microchannel (the Y axis on the right) and of the micro- time ranged from 780 s when power > 50 mW was used.
heater temperature (the Y axis on the left) when the valve was actuating. The results in Fig. 5 were obtained when the NaCl solution was
Three cycles of valve open and close are shown to illustrate repeatability. supplied by a hydrostatic head at 9.5 mm (333 nL/min as dis-
(b) Visualization of microvalve actuation using fluorescence in the cussed above). We also studied the valve operation when the
microchannel valve region before and after valve actuation. The channel
microfluidic channel was connected with a syringe pump. At
was filled with a fluorescent dye, rhodamine B. Some fibers present near
a flow rate of 300 nL/min (or 1.2 mm/s flow velocity), we
channel walls were absorbed with the fluorescent dye, however, they were
irrelevant with the valve actuation.
observed a similar phenomenon with a heater power of 65 mW
and 81 mW.
valve actuation time was calculated from the time when the
Integration
heater power was switched on to the time when the electric ionic
channel current decreased to a value less than 0.1% of the orig- For system applications, controlled thermal actuation of an
inal value and held that value for more than 5 s. Note that all array of microvalves is expected to be controlled by a PCB
experiments were performed under the same conditions controller using a packaging technique currently employed in the
described in the Experimental section. Other variables such as semiconductor and computer industry. Using PCB control of
flexibility of the elastomeric film and the flow rate in the micro- electrical heater power applied to thermally actuated microvalves
channel could play a role in the valve actuation time. We will eliminate the requirement of bulky accessories for pneu-
observed a considerable reduction in the actuation time when the matically actuated microvalves. PCB technology will also enable
power was increased initially. However, beyond a power of the large-scale integration of microfluidic valves for high-
50 mW up to 80 mW, the decrease in actuation time was less throughput applications.
pronounced which may be due to increasing thermal losses. For To illustrate the potential of using a PCB to control the power
each heater power value, except at the lowest power setting which supply to micro-heaters, a PCB controller was designed and
was at the threshold of actuation and highly variable, 6 to 8 valve constructed as shown in Fig. 6. The PCB consists of components
tests were conducted to obtain the standard deviation, which is mounted on an electrically insulating board including a micro-
indicated by the error bars. For the lowest power input (36 mW), processor, latches, and connectors; this PCB has the ability to
of the three tests, only one showed complete actuation while the control 16 microvalves. The dc 5 V may be supplied by either
remaining two had partial valve action in the time allotted of one a power supply or a computer. The actual power supplied to the
heater of a microvalve is controlled by a computer through the
PCB and a programmed graphic user interface. When a PCB
with one microvalve in a device was connected; similar results to
Fig. 4 were observed, showing the feasibility of the proposed
system integration.
Conclusion
We designed and fabricated a thermally actuated microvalve in
a plastic microfluidic device. Four layers of plastic sheets/films
were assembled together using lamination and solvent bonding.
Fig. 5 Valve actuation time as a function of input heater power. The The valve was actuated by a temperature-sensitive fluid that was
error bars indicated the standard deviation of multiple tests. heated using a microfabricated resistor. A thin PET film used in
3086 | Lab Chip, 2009, 9, 30823087 This journal is The Royal Society of Chemistry 2009
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