Design of a micro-Functional Testing System for process characterization of a hot micro-embossing machine

Growth in industrial, commercial, and medical applications for micro-fluidic devices has fueled heightened research and development into micro-fluidic design, materials, and increasingly manufacturing. Polymers (Poly(methyl methacrylate)-PMMA in particular) are the current material of choice given their low cost, wide range of material properties, and biocompatibility. Given most fabrication processes have focused on hard materials for the semiconductor industry, an alternate set of processes such as hot micro-embossing (HME) have received increased attention as manufacturing processes for high-volume polymer-based micro-fluidic production. An understanding of the equipment, process physics, control strategy, and metrology for part fabrication are required when moving from the lab to production level. An initial statistical analysis of PMMA parts fabricated on the first generation HME system showed the need to: (1) design a new HME system; and (2) establish alternative methods for characterizing micro-fluidic parts.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Thaker, Kunal H. (Kunal Harish)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David E. Hardt.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35647

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35647