The fabrication of microfluidic structures by means of full-wafer adhesive bonding using a poly(dimethylsiloxane) catalyst

In this work, we present the use of a PDMS (poly(dimethylsiloxane)) curing-agent as the intermediate layer for adhesive full-wafer bonding suitable for fabrication of microfluidic structures. The curing-agent of the two-component silicone rubber (Sylgard 184) is spin coated on a substrate, brought into contact with another PDMS layer and heat cured to create an irreversible seal which is as strong as or even stronger than plasma-assisted PDMS bonding. The maximum bond strength is measured to 800 kPa when bonding together PDMS and silicon. The applicability of the new PDMS adhesive bonding method is verified by means of fabricating microfluidic structures. Using this method allows for wafer-level bonding of PDMS to various materials such as PDMS, glass or silicon and more importantly to selectively bond different layers by using a patterned adhesive bonding technique. Moreover, precise alignment of the structural layers is facilitated since curing is initiated upon heat which is an advantage when fabricating multilayer microfluidic devices.