Improvement of surface properties on microfluidic devices by Diamond-Like Carbon coatings

Studies of Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) coated medical devices have reported possibility for developing blood analysis devices. DLC film is a surface modification technique for biomaterials due to their hemocompatibility, low friction, and reasonableness. To estimate the hemocompatibility of DLC films on microfluidic devices, we have coated DLC film on silicon (Si), and SU-8 by using RF plasma chemical vapor deposition system. Si and SU-8 have been used extensively in microchannel devices^[1-3]. The hemocompatibility, chemical composition, structure, wettability, chemical stability, and surface morphology of the samples have been investigated by in-vitro test, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), a contact angle measurement, immersion test, scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The result indicated that the satisfied hemocompatibility and chemical stability was obtained for the DLC on SU-8. DLC coating is expected as a surface modification technique for the microchannel of microfluidic devices.