Injection molded nanofluidic chips: Fabrication method and functional tests using single-molecule DNA experiments

Abstract

We demonstrate that fabrication of well-defined nanofluidic systems can be greatly simplified by injection molding of thermoplastic polymers. Chips featuring nanochannel arrays, microchannels and integrated interconnects are produced in a single processing step by injection molding. The resulting open channel structures are subsequently sealed by facile plasma-enhanced thermal bonding of a polymer film. This fast, inexpensive and industry-compatible method thus provides a single-use all-polymer platform for nanofluidic lab-on-a-chip applications. Its applicability for nanofluidics is demonstrated by DNA stretching experiments performed on individual double-stranded DNA molecules confined in the injection molded nanochannels. The obtained results are consistent with measurements performed in costly state-of-the-art silica nanochannels, for both straight and tapered channel geometries.