Assessment of Direct Laser Writing using Nd YAG Lasers for Microfluidic Applications

The rapid growth in the use of Micro/Nano products in variety of industries such as Micro electromechanical systems (MEMS), microelectronics, Biomedical/Bio-MEMS, automotive (motion sensors), telecommunications etc, has demanded new micro manufacturing methods. The challenge with the manufacturing of Microfluidic devices/biochips is that they often make use of broad range of materials within a single chip, making it difficult to manufacture these devices with conventional photolithographic based techniques. Laser processing of materials has proved to be an important tool for the development of these devices because of the accuracy, flexibility and the most important one material independence it offers. This research focus on optimization of laser process parameters for the machining of Microfluidic channels with AISI 1045 steel. Design of experiments (DOE) technique was used in order to study the effect of laser process parameters on rectangular and semicircular cross-section channels. Assessment of Direct Laser Writing using Nd YAG Lasers for Microfluidic Applications