Fabrication and Width Control of Microchannels Produced on Polyethylene terephthalate (PEt) sheets using a CO2 Laser
X-Y. Chen and J-N. Shen
A simple, rapid, high-efficiency and low-cost method for fabricating polyethylene terephthalate (PET) microfluidic devices using a CO2 laser system is presented. The effects of the laser power, the laser scanning speed, processing length of the microchannel and processing times on the width of the microchannels fabricated on PET sheet were optimized by orthogonal experimental method. The optimal laser power, laser scanning speed, processing length of the microchannel and processing times were obtained. In the optimal case, the arithmetical mean roughness (Ra) can reach as low as 170 nm.
Keywords: CO2 laser, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet, microchannel, microfluidic chip, arithmetical mean roughness, orthogonal experimental method