3 research outputs found
Roll-to-Roll pilot line for large-scale manufacturing of microfluidic devices
Roll-to-roll (R2R) technologies with roller-based nanoimprinting methods enable manufacturing of highly cost-effective and large-scale sheets of flexible polymer film with precise structures on a micro- and nanoscale 1. Areas that can benefit strongly from such large scale technologies are microfluidics, biosensors, and lab-on-chip products for point of care diagnostics, drug discovery and food control. Here, R2R fabrication could greatly reduce production costs and increase manufacturing capacity with respect to currently used products. A pilot line with this technology is investigated in the European Horizon 2020 project R2R Biofluidics and its capabilities are tested on two Demonstrators: - Demonstrator 1: In-vitro diagnostic chip with imprinted microfluidic channels based on optical chemiluminescence measurement by photodetectors. - Demonstrator 2: Neuronal cell culture plate with imprinted cavities and channels for controlled culturing and fluorescence imaging of neurons, for high throughput drug screening.
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High-throughput roll-to-roll production of polymer biochips for multiplexed DNA detection in point-of-care diagnostics
Roll-to-roll UV nanoimprint lithography has superior advantages for high-throughput manufacturing of micro- or nano-structures on flexible polymer foils with various geometries and configurations. Our pilot line provides large-scale structure imprinting for cost-effective polymer biochips (4500 biochips/hour), enabling rapid and multiplexed detections. A complete high-volume process chain of the technology for producing structures like μ-sized, triangular optical out-couplers or capillary channels (width: from 1 μm to 2 mm, height: from 200 nm up to 100 μm) to obtain biochips (width: 25 mm, length: 75 mm, height: 100 μm to 1.5 mm) was described. The imprinting process was performed with custom-developed resins on polymer foils with resin thicknesses ranging between 125–190 μm. The produced chips were tested in a commercial point-of-care diagnostic system for multiplexed DNA analysis of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (e.g., mecA, mecC gene detections). Specific target DNA capturing was based on hybridisation between surface bound DNA probes and biotinylated targets from the sample. The immobilised biotinylated targets subsequently bind streptavidin–horseradish peroxidase conjugates, which in turn generate light upon incubation with a chemiluminescent substrate. To enhance the light out-coupling thus to improve the system performance, optical structures were integrated into the design. The limits-of-detection of mecA (25 bp) for chips with and without structures were calculated as 0.06 and 0.07 μM, respectively. Further, foil-based chips with fluidic channels were DNA functionalised in our roll-to-roll micro-array spotter following the imprinting. This straightforward approach of sequential imprinting and multiplexed DNA functionalisation on a single foil was also realised for the first time. The corresponding foil-based chips were able to detect mecA gene DNA sequences down to a 0.25 μM concentration.This research was supported by R2R BIOFLUIDICS project (http://www.r2r-biofluidics.eu/) under Horizon 2020 European Union (EU) Research and Innovation Programme with grant agreement no 646260. The research was also partially supported by NextGenMicrofluidics project (https:// www. nextgenmicrofluidics.eu/) under HORIZON2020 with grant agreement no 862092. The authors cordially thank Gerburg Schider & Gerhard Mohr, Markus Postl, Paul Patter and Alexander Wheeldon (JOANNEUM RESEARCH – Materials, Weiz, Austria) for revising the manuscript, preparing all the chip and R2R pilot line illustrations, taking the photographs and providing technical support, respectively. The authors are also grateful to Christian Wolf and Johannes Götz (JOANNEUM RESEARCH – Materials, Weiz, Austria) for their supports in the fluidic design and R2R UV-NIL structuring, respectively. We further kindly thank Alba Simon Munoz and Robert Fay (SCIENION AG, Berlin, Germany) for providing the illustration of the R2R micro-spotting line. PT specially thanks Ege Ozgun (NANOTAM, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey) for critically reading the manuscript
Multilength Scale Patterning of Functional Layers by Roll-to-Roll Ultraviolet-Light-Assisted Nanoimprint Lithography
Top-down fabrication of nanostructures
with high throughput is
still a challenge. We demonstrate the fast (>10 m/min) and continuous
fabrication of multilength scale structures by roll-to-roll UV-nanoimprint
lithography on a 250 mm wide web. The large-area nanopatterning is
enabled by a multicomponent UV-curable resist system (<i>JRcure</i>) with viscous, mechanical, and surface properties that are tunable
over a wide range to either allow for usage as polymer stamp material
or as imprint resist. The adjustable elasticity and surface chemistry
of the resist system enable multistep self-replication of structured
resist layers. Decisive for defect-free UV-nanoimprinting in roll-to-roll
is the minimization of the surface energies of stamp and resist, and
the stepwise reduction of the stiffness from one layer to the next
is essential for optimizing the reproduction fidelity especially for
nanoscale features. Accordingly, we demonstrate the continuous replication
of 3D nanostructures and the high-throughput fabrication of multilength
scale resist structures resulting in flexible polyethylenetherephtalate
film rolls with superhydrophobic properties. Moreover, a water-soluble
UV-imprint resist (<i>JRlift</i>) is introduced that enables
residue-free nanoimprinting in roll-to-roll. Thereby we could demonstrate
high-throughput fabrication of metallic patterns with only 200 nm
line width