Biotechnology

The convergence of traditional biology, information technology, and microtechnology has provided for explosive growth in the area of biotechnology. Smart filter technology can be utilized within this discipline in many different and exciting ways. Applications have been demonstrated in a number of areas, including microfluidics, genomics, proteomics, tissue engineering, stent patterning, microarrays, biotechnological & biomedical devices, drug discovery & development, and microchemical analysis systems. Examples of some of these are shown below.

Molding Processes
Smart filter technology has been used extensively to fabricate micro molds, which can then be used to fabricate plastic biomedical or microfluidic devices. A significant amount of work has been demonstrated in using these molds to fabricate low cost polydimethylsilane (PDMS) and other plastic devices. Examples are shown below.

PDMS microfluidic channels (top) molded from a micro mold (bottom) fabricated on the SF-100

PDMS round microchannel was fabricated from a micromold made with the SF-100. The micromold was a multi-diameter cylinder that contained features of 100um and smaller. These features were precisely placed on the mold using the SF-100 and standard photoresist materials.

A copper mold was used to mold a network of channels in acrylic plastic. The mold was fabricated using the SF-100 for image patterning and then wet etching the pattern into the metal.

Patterning on Non-Silicon Substrates:
Since silicon is not an ideal material for many biotechnical applications, other substrate materials are often used to fabricate devices that will be used in biological applications. A sampling of these materials that have been processed on the SF-100 are shown below.

Glass is a common material used for these types of devices and the SF-100 is often employed to pattern this material. A glass microscope slide is shown with a 200 um thick photoresist pattern on it. The thick photoresist was laminated onto the glass slide to ensure good, uniform coating.

Since many biological devices are designed for single use, thin films are frequently employed due to their inherent low cost. A number of these devices are shown above and include (starting from the top left corner and moving clockwise), a copper clad LCP microheater, a metal press plate, copper tape disposible device, and a copper coated polypropylene thin film device. Patterns for all of these devices were made using the SF-100.

Manipulation of Biological and Cellular Materials Using 365nm Energy
Using Smart Filter technology as an optical pattern generator with energy at 365nm wavelength, a number of biological applications are available that do not require photoresist. Examples of these include cellular manipulation, hydrogel fabrication, and biological materials manipulation. The SF-100 supports these processes in a controllable manner, while supporting high relaibility and ease of operation.
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