Custom Microfluidic Lab-on-a-Chip Biochip with High-Precision Glass Etching for Medical Diagnostics

Product Description

                                                              Microfluidic Chip

 

·Product Description
  Microfluidics in the medical industry refers to the science and technology involved in the use of micro pipes (tens to hundreds of microns in size) to process or manipulate micro fluids (volume from skin to nano liter). It is a new interdisciplinary subject involving chemistry, fluid physics, microelectronics, new materials, biology and biomedical engineering. Because of the characteristics of miniaturization and integration, microfluidic devices are usually called microfluidic chips, also known as lab on a chip and micro total analytical system. The early concept of microfluidic can be traced back to the gas chromatograph made on silicon wafer by photolithography technology in the 1970s, and then developed into microfluidic capillary electrophoresis instrument and microreactor. One of the important characteristics of microfluidic is the unique fluid properties in the micro scale environment, such as laminar flow and droplets. With the help of these unique fluid phenomena, microfluidic can realize a series of microfabrication and micromanipulation that are difficult to complete by conventional methods. At present, microfluidic is considered to have great development potential and broad application prospects in biomedical research.


· Application
The term lab-on-a-chip refers to a miniaturized, microfluidic system that enables laboratory analysis on a single chip. This technology can be used to image extensive biological, chemical and physical processes. To. The main applications in the field of lab-on-a-chip include human diagnostics, DNA analysis, chemical synthesis.

ZEGOTA supplies lab on chip components made of glass, quartz and glass-silicon composite materials. These components are used as micro reactors in the field of medical and pharmaceutical technology as well as in the form of fluidic chips in the field of diagnostics, medical applications and implantology. As materials glass, quartz and glass-silicon combinations are ideal for these applications, since they are materials which can resist difficult environmental conditions such as, for example, high temperatures and chemicals. They nonetheless demonstrate a high degree of bio-compatibility. These characteristics distinguish the materials markedly from the polymer substances standardly used in these fields of application.

For the creation of fluidic components and bio-chips LTF uses a wide range of structuring processes which have been employed for many years in the field of MEMS cap wafers, including, for example, micro-sandblasting and wet-chemical structuring of glass and quartz.The manufacture of these fluidic chips can be carried out inexpensively based on 6″ or 8″ wafers.

·Product advantage

Rapid prototyping and iteration:
1. core advantages: This is the most outstanding advantage of 3D printing. Designers can directly convert CAD models into physical chip prototypes in hours or days.
2. accelerate R&D: there is no need to wait for weeks for mask fabrication, mold processing (such as PDMS soft lithography) or outsourcing processing. After the design is modified, the new version can be printed immediately for testing, which greatly shortens the design test optimization cycle.
3. low cost trial and error: fast iteration reduces the cost and time risk of single design failure, and encourages innovation and exploration of more complex structures.

Category	Evaluation Parameter / Indicator	Tier-1 International Standard	Industry Standard / Mid-Tier	Remarks & Key Advantages
1. Glass / Quartz	Processing Technology	Wet Etching / Ultrafast Femtosecond Laser Micromachining / Laser Drilling	Traditional Wet Etching / Ultrasonic Drilling	High optical clarity & chemical resistance
	Minimum Feature Size	≤2um (Dry)/≤10m (Wet)	20 ~ 50um	High-precision droplet generation & cell trapping
	Max Aspect Ratio	>10:1	2:1~3:1	Deep channels & micro-well arrays
	Surface Roughness ($R_a$)	< 5nm (OpticalMirror Finish)	20~ 50nm	Ideal for high-resolution fluorescence imaging
	Bonding Strength	Seamless Fusion Bonding (Pressure >100 bar)	Adhesive / Standard Thermal Bonding (<10bar)	High pressure resistance, zero solvent contamination
2. Polymers (COC / COP / PMMA)	Fabrication Process	Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) / High-Precision Injection Molding	Standard Injection Molding / CNC Micro-Milling	Designed for mass IVD chip production
	Min Channel Width	≤5m(NIL)/≤20 m (Molding)	50 ~ 100 m	High reproducibility for micro/nano channels
	Channel Tolerance	≤+1m	±10m	Ensures uniform fluidic resistance & flow rate
	Bonding Technology	Ultrasonic Welding / Solvent-Assisted / Diffusion Bonding	Double-sided Tape / UV Adhesive	Eliminates dead volume; prevents channel clogging
3. PDMS Elastomer	Master Mold Fabrication	Silicon SU-8 Photolithography / Electroformed Metal Mold	Standard SU-8 / 3D-Printed Mold	Soft lithography micro/nano replication
	Min Feature / Resolution	≤1m	10~20m	Single-cell analysis & micro-droplet control
	Max Aspect Ratio	>20:1	5:1	High-density 3D microchannel architectures
	Punching & Assembly	Automated Burr-Free Punching (Diameter >0.3 mm)	Manual Punching (Prone to edge tearing)	Prevents leakage & micro-particulate contamination
	Plasma Bonding	Surface Modification + Permanent Covalent Bonding	Simple Short-Term Plasma Activation	Leak-proof under continuous pulsatile flow
4. Silicon Substrate & Hybrid	Processing Technology	MEMS DRIE (Deep Reactive-Ion Etching)	Standard Dry / Wet Etching	For Organ-on-a-Chip & integrated sensors
	Min Feature Size	<0.5 um (Sub-micron)	5 m	Nanopores and nanosieve structures
	Max Aspect Ratio	>30:1	10:1	Ultra-high density deep channel networks
5. Surface Modification & Integration	Hydrophilic / Hydrophobic Coating	Long-Term Selective Surface Modification (Shelf Life > 6Months)	General Coating / Rapid Decay (Lasts a few days)	Essential for stable droplet/emulsion formation
	Micro-electrode / Sensor Integration	Thin-Film Sputtered Au/Pt Electrodes (Width/Gap ≤2 um)	Screen-Printed Electrodes  (Gap>100 m)	Integrated electrochemical/impedance detection
	Micro-valve / Micro-pump Integration	Multi-Layer PDMS Pneumatic Micro-valves  (>107 Cycles,Zero Dead Volume)	External Solenoid / Manual Valves	Enables complex automated fluid routing

High degree of design freedom and complexity:
1. complex three-dimensional structure: traditional lithography technology is mainly good at manufacturing two-dimensional planar structures, while 3D printing can directly build truly complex three-dimensional microchannels, mixers, valves, chambers (such as gradient generators, cell culture chambers), etc. These structures require extremely complex multi-layer alignment and bonding processes in traditional methods.
2. integrated manufacturing: the chip body, connector (Ruhr connector, pipe interface), and even embedded components (such as sensor bracket and electrode prototype) can be printed at one time to reduce the assembly steps and improve the sealing and reliability of the overall structure. It avoids the leakage or alignment problems caused by the bonding between chip layers in the traditional method.
3. customization and personalization: easily realize the unique design of each chip, especially suitable for personalized medical treatment, special experimental needs or small batch customization production.


Reduces costs (especially for R&D and small batch):
1. lower equipment threshold: no expensive clean room facilities, lithography machines, plasma bonding machines and other large-scale professional equipment are required. A 3D printer with sufficient performance can operate in the ordinary laboratory environment.
2. reduce material waste: it belongs to additive manufacturing, which usually wastes less materials than that of reduced manufacturing (such as milling).
3. labor cost: the operation is relatively simple, and the professional training requirements for operators are lower than those for traditional micro nano processing.



·Production

 

·Microfluidic Design and Manufacturing

1.Customers' demand for mass production of microfluidic chips
The customer put forward the demand for batch production of microfluidic chip injection molding:
1) The customer provides microfluidic chip design drawings. According to the chip design drawings and the purpose of the customer's chip design, technicians evaluate the chip design drawings and determine the chip design drawings with the customer.
2) The customer provides the functions to be realized by the chip. Hanhao technicians design the chip according to the functions, evaluate the realization of the chip functions, and determine the chip design drawings with the customer.
2.Feasibility evaluation of injection mold opening
According to the chip drawings, the technical evaluation of the development of the injection mold is carried out, such as the appearance, material, total thickness, channel size, depth width ratio, dimensional accuracy, tolerance, surface finish of the microfluidic chip, the way of the mold inlet, the arrangement of the product in the mold, the arrangement of the product removal thimble, and the subsequent sealing of the chip. The feasibility of open mold injection molding is evaluated in all aspects.
3.Sign sales contract
After the evaluation, it is determined that the injection mold can be opened according to the customer's needs, and a contract can be signed with the customer.
4.Mold design and development
According to the requirements of customers, based on the experience of microfluidic chip injection molding batch production, a comprehensive pre evaluation of mold design was carried out. According to the mold evaluation data in the early stage, the technical team carried out mold cooling water path design, product gate layout design, product removal design in the mold, mold two or three plate mold design, mold slider design, and exhaust slot design.
5.Mold processing
The imported Makino v331 and v56i high-speed CNC machining centers and other imported equipment are used for mold processing to ensure the processing accuracy of mold parts.


·Brief Introduction
Zhejiang zegota Precision Technology Co., Ltd is a one-stop solution supplier for high-precision micro nano 3D printing. Founded in 2019, it specializes in the R&D, production and manufacturing of UV curable 3D printers and micro nano 3D printers, as well as the mass production of micro nano 3D printing products. At present, the company has more than 200 people, and R&D personnel account for more than 30%.
The accuracy of the company's 3D printing equipment is 2 μ m, 5 μ m, 10 μ m, 20 μ m, etc., and the printing materials are resin PP, Alumina, zirconia, silicon carbide ceramics, etc., can meet the requirements of different applications in product accuracy and material properties at the same time.
Zhejiang zegota Precision Technology Co., Ltd.The sub-pixel micro scanning technology solves the problem of using imported light sources for micro nano 3D printing (micro stereolithography), realizes the complete localization of the whole set of 3D printing equipment, and provides new solutions for our aerospace, medical health, semiconductor, 5g antenna and other fields in the field of micro nano processing.