High-density plastic microfluidic platforms for capillary electrophoresis separation and high-throughput screening

Modern drug discovery and genome analysis depend on the rapid analysis of a large numbers of samples in parallel. Microfluidic devices must be of low cost, to be applied in this field, which means that they have to be mass producted. A novel microfluidic platform of the standardized microplate, footprint for applications in high-throughput drug screening (HTS), DNA and protein analysis has now been developed jointly by Greiner Bio-One and the Karlsruhe Research Center. Mechanical micromachining is used to manufacture a molding tool for replication in plastics, e.g., polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polycarbonate (PC), cycloolefin copolymer (COC), polyoxymethylene (POM), polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyvinylidenfluoride (PVDF), polysulfone (PSU), and polystyrene (PS). In low-cost mass production, plastic microfluidic devices with a high density of microchannels are fabricated by vacuum hot embossing. The microchannel arrays are sealed simultaneously with a one-piece cover plate by applying a unique bonding technology to ensure reliable applications without any leakage or cross flow.