Rapid, Low-Cost Production of Multilayer Molds for PDMS Lab-on-Chip Devices

We present a simple, rapid and low-cost multi-layer mold fabrication method for production of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) lab-on-chip (LOC) devices. The new approach offers resource-strained researchers access to microfluidic lab-on-chip fabrication for medical diagnostics, food security and environmental monitoring applications. In this work, photomasks were designed on PowerPoint (2021) and printed on Pelikan transparency sheets using a Canon PIXMA iX6840 Inkjet printer. The photomasks were then tested for ultraviolet (UV) transmission and compared to the masks produced for circuit board manufacture. Another low-cost approach for the alignment of multi-exposure masks was also developed and tested by producing three-layer photoresist pyramid-like structures on silicon (Si) wafer using the soft lithography process.