POLYMER SHEET PATTERNING AND ITS ASSEMBLY USING SLIT CHANNEL LITHOGRAPHY

摘要

Synthesizing polymeric sheets in a slit fluidic channel by projection of a pulse of illumination to the channel. A slit channel can include a polymeric device with a plane's width larger than 1 mm. A glass plate is placed above the channel to prevent the channel from sagging. A photocurable prepolymer is flowed through the channel. The flow is paused and an illumination is projected to the channel through a photomask, produces a polymer sheet. The polymer sheet is then flushed out by resuming the flow. This process is repeated enabling continuous synthesis of polymeric sheets. The sheets can obtain any patterns defined by the photomask design, such as micropores and other geometrical patterns. These polymer sheets can be used in many emerging areas of technologies such as lab-on-a-chip, tissue engineering and organic electronics.

主权项

1. A method for synthesizing polymeric sheets, comprising:
providing a substrate which defines a slit channel having a plane's width of at least 1 mm; providing a solid layer at the slit channel to prevent the slit channel from sagging; flowing a curable prepolymer responsive to illumination through the slit channel; pausing the flow of the curable prepolymer responsive to illumination; and projecting a source pulse of illumination to the slit channel through a photomask to the paused flow of the curable prepolymer responsive to illumination, to produce a polymeric sheet.