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Multilayer microfluidic devices created from a single photomask

Article  in  RSC Advances · November 2013

DOI: 10.1039/c3ra43732a

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RSC Advances
PAPER

Multilayer microfluidic devices created from a single

photomask†
Cite this: RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 20138

Ryan T. Kelly,* Allison M. Sheen and Sachin Jambovane

Received 18th July 2013
Accepted 16th August 2013
DOI: 10.1039/c3ra43732a
www.rsc.org/advances
The time and expense associated with high quality photomask production can discourage the creation of
multilayer microfluidic devices, as each layer currently requires a separate photomask. Here we describe an
approach in which multilayer microfabricated devices can be made from a single photomask. The separate
layers and their corresponding alignment marks are arranged in separate halves of the mask for two layer
devices or quadrants for four layer devices. Selective exposure of the photomask features and rotation of
the device substrate between exposures result in multiple copies of the devices on each wafer. Subsequent
layers are aligned to patterned features on the substrate with the same alignment accuracy that is achieved
using separate photomasks. We demonstrate this approach by fabricating devices employing multilayer
soft lithography (MSL) for pneumatic valving. MSL devices containing as many as 5 layers (4 aligned
fluidic layers plus a manually aligned control layer) were successfully created using this approach. Device
design is also modularized, enabling the presence or absence of features as well as channel heights to
be selected independently from one another. The use of a single photomask to create multilayer devices
results in a dramatic savings of time and/or money required to advance from device design to
completed prototype.

Introduction comparing channels patterned in SU-8 photoresist through a

The development of advanced microuidic constructs is oen
an iterative process wherein a design is rened and improved
over successive generations to achieve a working prototype. In
this development cycle, the creation of photomasks can be one
of the most costly steps in terms of both money and time.
Several options are available to produce the contact photomasks
employed by microuidics researchers. High quality chrome-
on-glass photomasks provide features as small as 1 mm and can
be purchased from commercial sources or produced in house if
pattern generating equipment is available. Outsourced photo-
masks have a turnaround time of several days and cost
hundreds of dollars each, while those produced in house can be
less expensive but still require several hours to a day to create.
To save costs, many have turned to less expensive emulsion-
based photoplots.1,2 These can reduce costs relative to glass
photomasks by
80 to 90% but are limited to features larger
than 8 mm. Also important, but oen overlooked is that inclu-
sions in the transparent base of the plotted lms can lead to
nonuniform exposure and ultimately rough channel walls,
which can impact the uidic and optical properties of the
completed microuidic devices.3–6 Photomicrographs
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacic Northwest National Laboratory,
P.O. Box 999, Richland, Washington 99352, USA. E-mail: ryan.kelly@pnnl.gov
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See
10.1039/c3ra43732a
photoplotted mask with those from a chrome/glass mask are
shown in ESI.†
The costs associated with high quality photomasks become
even more acute with multilayer devices, which require a separate
mask for each layer. Multiple layers may be used to, e.g., align
patterned electrodes with microchannels,7 incorporate channels
having different heights or cross-sectional geometries (rectan-
gular vs. rounded),8 or to enable overlapping channels in different
planes.9 For example, multilayered so lithography (MSL)8,10
devices are in widespread use to incorporate pneumatic valves for
uid control and pumping. A MSL device includes a “ow layer”
containing the uidic channel network and a “control layer”
comprising a series of dead-end channels. A thin elastomeric
membrane separates the control and ow layers and when pres-
sure is applied to the control channels the membrane deforms
into the ow channel to block ow. In order to seal completely,
the ow channel must have a rounded cross-section where it
overlaps with the control channel; rounded cross-sections are
achieved by thermally reowing a standard positive photoresist in
the so lithography mold. However, other features in the ow
layer oen require the rectangular cross-section and dimensional
accuracy provided by SU-8 photoresist.11 As such, MSL devices
frequently include at least 3 distinct layers, each with their own
photomask, and may require several more to accommodate
different channel heights, patterned electrodes, etc. High quality
DOI: glass photomasks are therefore rarely used for MSL and even the
cost of photoplotted masks becomes signicant.

20138 | RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 20138–20142 This journal is ª The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013
Paper
We have developed an approach that enables multiple layers
to be created and aligned from a single contact photomask,
providing a substantial savings in photomask production costs
and a reduction in time in the prototyping cycle. Grayscale
lithography12,13 can produce channels having different heights
from a single photomask, but the single exposure constrains all
features to be of the same material. Multiple aligned layers have
been incorporated into single reticles14,15 used for step- or scan-
and-repeat projection lithography favored by the semiconductor
industry, but we are unaware of an analogous approach for
contact/proximity photolithography employed by most micro-
uidics researchers.
Approach
The design rules and workow for photomask creation and
utilization are shown in Fig. 1 for a two layer device. The
available area for unique designs (Fig. 1A) is limited to half of
the wafer, but the features can be printed twice. Designs are
oen replicated on a wafer to maximize the area utilization and
increase production throughput, and our approach has the
same effect. The alignment marks are offset from the centerline
of the mask (dashed line, Fig. 1A). One of the layers and its
corresponding alignment marks are rotated 180 about the
center point in the CAD design and a single layer photomask is
printed (Fig. 1B). Half of the photomask is covered to block light
transmission (Fig. 1C, gray portion) and a photoresist-coated
wafer (green) is then exposed to UV light. The wafer is then
rotated 180 and the other half of the wafer is exposed to the
same features (Fig. 1D). Rotation need not be very precise
provided that no critical features are positioned close to the
center line or the edge. The rst layer photoresist is then
developed and processed, and the wafer is again coated with
photoresist for exposure of the second layer. Exposure proceeds
as with the rst layer, but the features on the photomask
Fig. 1 Workflow for creating two-layer devices from a single photomask. (A) Create CAD layout. (B) Produce photomask from (A). (C) Expose right half of wafer while
blocking left half of mask. (D) Repeat exposure after rotating wafer 180 . (E) After developing first layer (green), recoat wafer (red), align left half of mask to existing
features and expose. (F) Repeat exposure after rotating wafer 180 and aligning. (G) Completed wafer. Additional description is in the text.
This journal is ª The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013
RSC Advances
corresponding to the rst layer are masked (Fig. 1E and 1F).
Prior to exposure, the alignment marks patterned on the rst
layer are precisely aligned with the 2nd layer marks on the mask
and alignment is performed separately for each half of the
wafer. The second layer photoresist is developed and a wafer
having both layers aligned and patterned twice results (Fig. 1G).
With only minor modication, the approach outlined above
was used to create three layer devices employing MSL for on-
chip valving that were similar to those used in a previous
study.16 The design enables on-demand dispensing and rapid
mixing of aqueous reagents in an oil stream with online
monitoring of the droplet contents by electrospray ionization
mass spectrometry.17 Fig. 2A shows the microuidic layout
drawn in AutoCAD (Autodesk, Inc., San Rafael, CA), which
occupies the upper half of a 100 mm-diameter Si wafer. The
mold for the main ow channel, shown in red, is patterned in
SU-8 photoresist (MicroChem, Newton, MA), while the features
shown in green are also part of the uidic network, but are
made from positive photoresist that is thermally reowed to a
rounded cross-section aer patterning to enable valve closure
upon actuation. The features in blue comprise the “control”
layer, made from an SU-8 mold, which have dead-end channels
that are manually aligned over the ow layer to deect a
membrane when pressurized to close the ow channels. To
arrange the device features onto a single photomask, the control
layer, common to both designs in Fig. 2, was moved to the
center panel as shown in Fig. 2B, while one of the ow channel
layers, with its corresponding alignment marks, was rotated
about the center to occupy the lower half of the mask. The
AutoCAD le used for mask printing is available in ESI.† The
photomask was printed in house using an Intelligent Micro-
patterning SF-100 Express (Saint Petersburg, FL) direct-write
lithography system. Photoresist-coated chrome-on-glass
photomask blanks (5 in. square) were purchased from Telic
(Valencia, CA).
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 20138–20142 | 20139
RSC Advances Paper

95  C, respectively, developed in SU-8 Developer (Microchem)

and hard baked at 180  C, leaving a completed template. A
schematic depiction of the completed ow layer template is
shown in Fig. 3A. Note that the control layer features (blue in
Fig. 2B) are partially printed multiple times in the center of the
wafer and this part of the template is not usable.
The control layer template was created on a separate silicon
wafer using SU-8 that was spin-coated to the same thickness as
that on the ow layer. A piece of aluminum foil covered all
features of the photomask except those corresponding to the
control layer (center panel in Fig. 1B), and the control layer
features were printed in separate exposures at 4 locations on the
wafer. This produced a template wafer as shown in Fig. 3B.
These exposures were carried out with manual translation on
top of a dummy mask and wafer that were needed to operate the

Fig. 2 Photomask design for 3 layer MSL device. (A) Original layout showing the
three layers overlaid. (B) Conversion to a single photomask. One flow layer and its
corresponding alignment marks are rotated to the lower two panels and the
control layer is moved to the middle panel. The mask is then collapsed to a single
layer and printed (not shown).

The photomask was used to pattern all three device layers as

follows. To create the ow layer mold, a silicon wafer was spin-
coated at 2000 rpm for 30 s with AZ P4620 photoresist (Capitol
Scientic, Austin, TX). Aer so baking for 2 min at 70  C and
3 min at 110  C, the wafer was loaded into the photomask
aligner (Neutronix-Quintel 4006, Morgan Hill, CA). The half of
the photomask corresponding to the SU-8 features (red in
Fig. 2B) was covered with aluminum foil. Aer exposing the
upper half of the wafer, the wafer was rotated 180 and the same
ow layer pattern was exposed on the other half of the wafer.
The features were then developed in AZ 400K developer (Capitol
Scientic, 25% in water) and the wafer was hard baked by
ramping a hot plate from room temperature to 180  C over 20
min, holding for 20 min and then allowing to cool to at least
130  C before removal. The alignment marks were then covered
with tape, and the wafer was spin-coated with SU-8 25 photo-
resist at 2000 rpm for 30 s. The tape was removed and a so
bake was performed at 65  C for 3 min and then 95  C for 7 min.
The wafer was again loaded into the photomask aligner and the
Fig. 3 Molds for MSL device creation. (A) Flow layer mold comprising aligned
aluminum foil was moved to block the other half of the mask
features from two photoresists. The shaded panel in the middle is not used. (B)
containing the previously exposed design. The second layer Control layer mold created by exposing the middle panel four times at different
exposure process was performed as described above. The SU-8 locations on the wafer while blocking other features on the photomask from
was then post-exposure baked for 1 and 3 min. at 65  C and exposure.

20140 | RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 20138–20142 This journal is ª The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013
Paper RSC Advances

aligner. A ruler was placed next to the photomask to move it

approximately the same distance for each exposure. While
somewhat more crude than the creation of the ow layer
template, this approach worked equally well and was well suited
to a single layer template with larger features such as those used
in a control layer. Photographs of a section of completed ow
layer template and a completed PDMS device created using this
approach are shown in Fig. 4. The valves are actuated in Fig. 4B
to separate the side arms from the center channel as described
previously.18
This approach can be extended further to designs requiring
additional layers. Whereas with two aligned layers the design
for the completed device must t on one half of the wafer but
can be replicated twice, a four layer device occupies no more
than 25% of the wafer area but is replicated four times. We used
this approach to create a modied design similar to the two
layer device but with a set of shallow, valved channels in the
droplet transfer region. Also, one of the aqueous dispensing
channels was moved to a separate layer. To design the photo-
mask, the ve device layers (four aligned ow layers plus the
manually aligned control channel) were overlaid in one quad-
rant of the drawing (Fig. 5A). Each of the four aligned layers had
a corresponding set of alignment marks (magnied in Fig. 5A).
Three of the aligned layers and their corresponding alignment
marks were rotated 90 , 180 and 270 , respectively, relative to
the fourth layer as shown in Fig. 5B. Again the alignment marks
were offset from the central axis. The control layer design was
moved to the center of the wafer as with the three layer devices.

Fig. 5 Five layer MSL design. (A) CAD layout showing overlapping device
features and alignment marks. (B) Photomask layout after rotating 3 of the 4 flow
layers by 90 , 180 and 270 , respectively, and moving the control layer design to
the center of the mask.

Template fabrication from the 5-layer mask was performed

Fig. 4 Photographs of flow layer template (A) and completed MSL device (B)
made using the molds depicted in Fig. 3.
as with the 3-layer mask, but the aluminum foil allowed only
one quadrant plus the corresponding alignment marks to be
exposed at a time. For each layer, the wafer was exposed four
times with 90 rotation between each exposure. The rst layer
was made from AZ1518 spin-coated at 2000 rpm for 30 s to
provide a
2.5 mm lm. The second and third layers were AZ
P4620 spin-coated at 3000 rpm and 2000 rpm for
8 and

11 mm lms, respectively, and the fourth layer was 25 mm-thick
SU-8. While the increased number of exposures using this
approach may appear cumbersome (16 separate exposures, 12
of which require alignment), we have found that the time spent
at the aligner still constitutes a small fraction of the total
fabrication time and that the benets are substantial. Not only
can the reduction in the number of masks result in a substantial

This journal is ª The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013 RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 20138–20142 | 20141
RSC Advances
Fig. 6 Photographs of microfluidic devices created from the 5-layer design. One
of the side arms shown in (A) was omitted in (B) by not processing one of the flow
layers during template preparation.
time and/or money savings when multiple mold thicknesses are
required, but device features can be modularized when fewer
layers are needed, providing increased exibility in terms of
both channel height as well as the inclusion or exclusion of
features. For example, Fig. 6 shows two devices created from the
same photomask, in which one of the dispensing channels has
been omitted from the device in Panel B.
While aluminum foil was used to selectively expose the
appropriate photomask portions in this work, dedicated,
generic photomasks that work for all two and four layer designs,
respectively, may be a worthwhile investment. Such masks
would be positioned directly above the active photomask.
Appropriate AutoCAD designs for such photomasks are
included in ESI.†
One potential limitation of this approach is a reduction in
usable wafer area due to the need to avoid feature overlap
during substrate rotation and the printing of control layer
features in the center of the ow layer template (Fig. 3A). At
present, substrate rotation is done manually with 2–3 mm
accuracy, resulting in a slight (<5%) reduction in usable area
around each quadrant of the 4 layer photomasks. However,
more accurate rotation could easily be achieved by incorpo-
rating marks that align with the wafer at at various locations
around the chuck to achieve sub-mm rotation accuracy. The
unusable area of the ow layer template caused by printing of
control layer features is unique to the creation of both ow and
control layer templates from the same mask. For multilayer
masks used to pattern a single wafer, essentially the entire wafer
surface will be usable.
Summary
In summary, we have developed a simple method to print up to
5-layer microuidic structures from single photomasks while
preserving the alignment accuracy associated with independent
masks dedicated to each layer. The approach fully utilizes the
wafer by replicating features from each layer multiple times on
the surface. We have found that the ability to combine multiple
layers into a single photomask removes much of the time
and expense associated with multilayer structures, which
20142 | RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 20138–20142
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encourages greater design complexity and accelerates the device
development cycle. Greater exibility in device design is also
demonstrated, as features can be modularized by placing them
on different layers.
Acknowledgements
A portion of this research was conducted under the Laboratory
Directed Research and Development Program at Pacic North-
west National Laboratory (PNNL), a multiprogram national
laboratory operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE). Additional support was provided by the intra-
mural program of the William R. Wiley Environmental Molec-
ular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL). The EMSL is a national
scientic user facility sponsored by US DOE's Office of Biolog-
ical and Environmental Research and located at PNNL in
Richland, WA.
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