Rapid prototyping of glass microchannels

This paper describes two methods by which we rapidly and economically fabricate microfluidic systems in glass. The first strategy relies on transferring patterns of microchannels in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) onto glass by using PDMS molds that are conformally sealed to glass for confining the etching solution, which then defines the etched pattern. The second strategy uses patterned deposition of surface activators and sensitizers for the electroless and electrolytic plating of nickel, which can then be used as a mask for either wet etching or dry reactive ion etching. We also characterize and compare the morphologies and surface roughness of the glass microchannels fabricated using these two methods. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.