Rapid, low cost fabrication of circular cross-section microchannels by thermal air molding

This paper demonstrates a simple fabrication process of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) circular cross section microfluidic channels by using a PDMS master mold and thermal air molding. Based on this technique, circular cross section microchannel can be easily produced in a wide range of dimensions from 10 μm to 500 μm with simple bench top equipment. This technique can create perfect circular channels without any plasma activated bonding and alignment process. We can also apply this technique to fabricate circular shape microchannel network for mimicking the vascular system, micro concaves for spheroid culture, micro nozzles for droplet generation, and micro patch clamps for cell immobilization.