Disposable optical stretcher fabricated by microinjection moulding

Microinjection moulding combined with the use of removable inserts is one of the most promising manufacturing processes for microfluidic devices, such as lab-on-chip, that have the potential to revolutionize the healthcare and diagnosis systems. In this work, we have designed, fabricated and tested a compact and disposable plastic optical stretcher. To produce the mould inserts, two micro manufacturing technologies have been used. Micro electro discharge machining (μEDM) was used to reproduce the inverse of the capillary tube connection characterized by elevated aspect ratio. The high accuracy of femtosecond laser micromachining (FLM) was exploited to manufacture the insert with perfectly aligned microfluidic channels and fibre slots, facilitating the final composition of the optical manipulation device. The optical stretcher operation was tested using microbeads and red blood cells solutions. The prototype presented in this work demonstrates the feasibility of this approach, which should guarantee real mass production of ready-to-use lab-on-chip devices.