Fabrication of three-dimensional helical microchannels with arbitrary length and uniform diameter inside fused silica

Opt Lett. 2012 Sep 15;37(18):3825-7. doi: 10.1364/ol.37.003825.

Abstract

We demonstrate an improved femtosecond laser irradiation followed by chemical etching process to create complex three-dimensional (3D) microchannels with arbitrary length and uniform diameter inside fused silica. A segmented chemical etching method of introducing extra access ports and a secondary power compensation is presented, which enables the fabrication of uniform 3D helical microchannels with length of 1.140 cm and aspect-ratio of 522. Based on this method, a micromixer which consists of a long helical microchannel and a y-tape microchannel was created inside the fused silica. We measured the mixing properties of the micromixer by injecting the phenolphthalein and NaOH solution through the two inlets of the y-tape microchannel. A rapid and efficient mixing was achieved in the 3D micromixer at a low Reynolds number.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Flow Injection Analysis / instrumentation*
  • Lasers*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Silicon Dioxide / chemistry*
  • Silicon Dioxide / radiation effects*

Substances

  • Silicon Dioxide