Large-Area and High-Throughput PDMS Microfluidic Chip Fabrication Assisted by Vacuum Airbag Laminator

One of the key fabrication steps of large-area microfluidic devices is the flexible-to-hard sheet alignment and pre-bonding. In this work, the vacuum airbag laminator (VAL) which is commonly used for liquid crystal display (LCD) production has been applied for large-area microfluidic device fabrication. A straightforward, efficient, and low-cost method has been achieved for 400 × 500 mm2 microfluidic device fabrication. VAL provides the advantages of precise alignment and lamination without bubbles. Thermal treatment has been applied to achieve strong PDMS–glass and PDMS–PDMS bonding with maximum breakup pressure of 739 kPa, which is comparable to interference-assisted thermal bonding method. The fabricated 152 × 152 mm2 microfluidic chip has been successfully applied for droplet generation and splitting.