PLASMA ENHANCED BONDING OF POLYDIMETHYLSILOXANE (PDMS) WITH PARYLENE

PDMS and parylene are among the most widely used polymers in biomedical and microfluidic applications. However, integration of both these materials on a single device has not been possible due to low bond strength achieved using conventional methods. In this paper, we demonstrate plasma-enhanced bonding of PDMS slabs with parylene thin films (from 0.4MPa for PDMS glued assembly to >1.4MPa tensile strength enhancement) without the usage of high temperature or pressure. This was achieved by systematic investigation of bonding parameters using Taguchi's design of experiment method. The application of this bond has also been demonstrated in PDMS-parylene microfluidic channels.