Alternative solutions of master molds creation for fabrication microfluidic chips by "soft" Lithography

Special attention is paid to improving the methods of fabrication microfluidic devices in the research laboratories. The search of solutions for more efficient and cheaper ways of manufacturing master molds for "soft" lithography (in comparison with the traditional method of photolithography), which do not require expensive equipment and clean room conditions is carried out. The fabrication of elastic master molds using "soft" lithography is a fairly convenient technology at a presence of master mold from silicon and photoresist, since in this case only additional materials are required. An important advantage of this approach is the possibility of fabrication solid replicas of adhesive compounds and epoxy resins. The time for manufacturing master molds from epoxy compounds (for elastomer replicas) can increase significantly, in other cases, the duration of the process is ~4.5-9 hours. Laser microprocessing of metals are relatively cheap and operational. These technologies allow to produce a solid master mold for a short time for "soft" lithography, which increases the maximum possible number of fabricated polymer replicas.