Microfluidic Chip Fabrication of Fused Silica Using Microgrinding

Although glass is in high demand as a material for microfluidic chips, it is still difficult to fabricate microstructures on glass. In this paper, polycrystalline diamond tools were fabricated through electrical discharge machining, and the microgrinding process for fused silica using the tools was studied. In order to improve the productivity, the machining effects of the high feed rate and depth of cut on the surface roughness of the channel bottoms and edge chipping were studied. A toolpath for the microchannels of a microfluidic chip was also studied and a microfluidic chip array was fabricated using this method.