Ultrafast laser micromanufacturing of microfluidic devices

Microfluidic devices play a continuous increasing role in the drugs and nanomedicine production and delivery and in diagnostic kits. Three main classes of materials are employed in manufacturing microfluidic devices: mainly polymers, metals and glasses. The mass production of microfluidic devices is normally based on micro-injection molding of PDMS but there are cases that discourage the use of PDMS such as when incompatible solvents must be used in drug formulation. Moreover, the use of PDMS based systems requires the manufacturing of micro-molds, a time expensive activity that strongly affects the development and the prototyping stage. In this work, the use of UV picosecond laser for the generation of micro-channels on glass surfaces is demonstrated. The surface topography and the geometric characteristics of the features are correlated with the main process parameters providing considerations on the process productivity.