3D microfluidic device fabricated by using surface-activated bonding of electroplated Ni patterns

We present a three dimensional (3D) microfluidic device fabricated by multiple-stacking of electroplated Ni patterns using surface-activated bonding (SAB) at room temperature. We successfully fabricated a micro heat exchanger as a feasibility device, which is 800 /spl mu/m square by stacking nine layers of 25 /spl mu/m-thick Ni patterns at alignment accuracy less than 1/spl mu/m. 3D fluidic channels which consist of vertical holes of 100 /spl mu/m diameter and horizontal paths 70 /spl mu/m wide and 100 /spl mu/m pitch were formed by simply stacking patterned Ni plates without any sacrificial layers.