Morphology control of microchannel cross-section using sacrificial spinning fiber

This paper presents a novel method to manufacture specific cross-section microchannel by spinning profiled fiber. With spinning process, High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) fibers with high profile degree can be drawn from a shaped spinneret orifice, and those fibers act as sacrificial mold to build microchannel with specific cross-section in PDMS. Microchannels with various shapes, from 55μm diameter circular to 220μm length square, from Y-shape, V-shape, L-shape to C-shape cross-section were both fabricated by the spinning-casting method. A PDMS swelling process has also been developed to remove large length-diameter ratio HIPS fiber (up to 1000:1) inside cured PDMS rapidly without mechanical extraction, it can also be used for rapid machining of complex three dimensional microchannels. This simple and mass productive method can improve specific surface area of microchannel, and provide various possibilities in microchannel design and fabrication.