Design, fabrication and modeling of microreactor arrays for biochips and discovery research.

To assure microarrays, capable of providing of superior quality, general adoptability, and reduced cost for genetic research, the development of synthesis methods using high yield acid-labile protected monomers rather than photolabile group protected monomers is desirable. The photogenerated acid produced by use of solution photochemistry is one of the suitable acid deprotection reagents. However, using solution photochemistry requires that the reaction sites are isolated from each other to prevent diffusion of reagents during a photolytic reaction. We present three different types of devices in order to be able to carry out parallel synthesis in the liquid phase on a chip: microwells with an isolation wall and a mechanical seal, microwells with surface tension isolation, and hermetically sealed microfluidic device with an isolation wall. We applied both surface and bulk micromachining technologies for fabrication of those devices. Due to significant enhancement of chemical reaction rate and hybridization rate, the microfluidic devices have more potential for genetic research than microwell devices. In this dissertation, we also proposed solutions for the various fabrication problems and discussed the use of techniques to simplify and expedite the fabrication process. The validated fidelity from the mismatch detection of both microwell and microfluidic array chips are also given. This dissertation also uses electrical equivalent network and computational fluid dynamic software (FLUENT) for modeling our microfluidic arrays not only to provide understanding of the physical phenomena observed from the experimental results, but also to offer the optimized geometry of the microfluidic array necessary for uniform flow distribution. The Micro Particle Imaging Velocimetry (MicroPIV) result is also given.Ph.D.Applied SciencesChemical engineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/132933/2/3058048.pd