Nanoscale coating in microfluidic laboratory-on-a-chip devices fabricated by microelectronic technologies

The nano-film of diamond-like carbon (DLC) is coated on the inner walls of microfluidic laboratory-on-a-chip devices as microchannel bends fabricated by microelectronic processes. Maskless lithography and hot embossing lithography techniques are used to fabricate these micron-scale devices. The microfluidic flow of water is controlled by the level of surface wettability of DLC coating inside the microchannel bends. These microchannel bends are structurally modified to separate polystyrene microparticles successfully from test suspension with 100% separation efficiency. These microchannel bends are useful to separate red blood cells (RBCs) and white blood cells (WBCs) from human blood for further clinical tests.