Fabrication of freestanding, microperforated membranes and their applications in microfluidics

This manuscript describes a convenient method for the fabrication of freestanding, microperforated membranes in photocurable polymers using only one step of photolithography. We used photosensitive prepolymers to make the membranes and photolithography to define the micropatterns. We demonstrated the fabrication of single- and multilayer microperforated membranes in SU-8 photoresist and Norland Optical Adhesive prepolymer. These membranes can be used to pattern surfaces in various materials and to fabricate complex three-dimensional microfluidic channel structures. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3491474]