Micro-cutting of polytetrafluoroetylene (PTFE) for application of micro-fluidic devices

This report describes fabrication of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to make up a micro-fluidic device for the application to a Micro-Total Analysis System (μ-TAS). This material is chosen as a material of the device because of many excellent properties such as high chemical resistance and high heat resistance in comparison with the other polymers. Mechanical micro-cutting process is employed for the fabrications of the required elemental micro-structures such as a micro-channel and a micro-reservoir for the device. In general, burrs are easily generated in the cutting of soft materials such as PTFE. It is thought to be the most important to find how to prevent the burr generation and how to clean the generated burrs to assure the device quality. Therefore, in order to obtain the fundamental information about the burr generation in the micro-cutting of PTFE, through hole drilling, groove milling and face milling are performed. As a result, the elemental micro-structures without burrs are fabricated on PTFE plate. Furthermore the plate is sealed by sealing film assisted with pressure. By testing leakage with fluid sample, it is confirmed that the pressure-aided sealing is useful.