Rapid fabrication of polymer microfluidic systems for the production of artificial lipid bilayers

A polymer microfluidic device has been fabricated using rapid prototyping techniques. The device was built to allow the formation and subsequent investigation of artificial bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs). A simple dry film photoresist stamp was used to hot emboss microfluidic channels into PMMA films. Laser micromachining was employed to form an aperture through the PMMA channels, across which the BLM was later formed. The dry film photoresist was also used as a simple etch mask for the deep etching of glass substrates in buffered HF solutions, which was used in this work for the production of glass embossing stamps. We show that bilayer films can be successfully produced across laser micromachined apertures in PMMA films. © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd