This work presents the fabrication of a microfluidic
autoregulatory valve which is composed of several layers of
thin polymer films (i.e., polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethyl-
ene terephthalate (PET) double-sided tape, and polydimethyl-
siloxane (PDMS)). Briefly, pulsed UV laser is employed to cut
the microstructures of through grooves or holes in the thermo-
plastic polymer films, and then the polymer-film valves are
precisely assembled through laminating the PDMS mem-
branes to the thermoplastic polymer films through the roll-
lamination method. The effective bonding between the PVC
film and the PDMS membrane is realized using the planar seal
method, and the valve is sandwiched and compressed by a
home-made housing to achieve the good seal effect. Then,
the flow performances of the prototype valve are examined,
and constant flow autoregulation is realized under the static or
dynamic test pressures. The long-term response of the valve is
also studied and minimum flow-rate decrements are found
over a long actuation time. The fabrication method proposed
in this work is successful for the low-cost and fast prototyping
of the polymer-film valve. We believe our method will also be
broadly applicable for fabrication of other low-cost and dis-
posable polymer-film microfluidic devices.

EB00000002173K

Available

• Inexpensive, rapid fabrication of polymer-film microfluidic autoregulatory valve for disposable microfluidics