Bonding of dissimilar polymer materials for fabrication of microscale devices

Microfluidic systems, also known as lab-on-a-chip devices, take advantage of physical forces at the microscale to offer precise control and manipulation of fluids in micron-sized geometries. While these systems promise to revolutionize the life sciences industry, rapid fabrication of these devices during technology development remains a challenge, particularly the critical bonding step between thermoplastic parts. The proposed research will develop new strategies and techniques for bonding dissimilar polymer materials together, with applications in low-, medium-, and high-volume manufacturing of polymer-based microfluidic devices. Developing bonding strategies that produce high-quality sealed devices, and are amenable to high-volume production, is of major interest to Bio-Rad Laboratories Canada, who is a leader in the development of life sciences products for research in academic labs and the pharmaceutical industry, and is poised to capitalize on this research to advance their R&D operations.

Faculty Supervisor:

Edmond Young

Student:

Alwin Ming-Doug Wan

Partner:

Bio-Rad Laboratories Canada Ltd.

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto