Tube interconnection in polydimethylsiloxane based fluidic microchannels

This paper presents a methodology to perform microfluidic word-to-chip interconnections in parallel, based on the common polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). We elaborated SU-8 four inches mould masters, combining 10@mm and 500@mm thickness processes, serving to cast 500@mm thick PDMS layers. We succeed in obtaining proper holes (vias), at wafer level and in one step, into both unmodified PDMS and PDMS nanocomposite layers using a procedure involving one dry etching process. Sealed tubes into these vias could sustain leakage pressure up to 1.2bar. Hence, this parallel and high throughput methodology brings a reliable process for tubing interconnect to complex microfluidics systems which are commonly integrated in bioMEMS and lab-on-a-chip (LOC).