Re:Replacing $100K diagnostic chip fab with Shrinky-Dinks an...
by regularfry on Monday November 09, 2009 @10:35AM
(#931063)
Anyone know what scale factor shrinkage you get out of this stuff? I'd quite like to experiment with optical effects, but I don't know what feature size you can get and I haven't got any expanded polystyrene handy for testing.
Re:Replacing $100K diagnostic chip fab with Shrinky-Dinks an...
by aarongough on Monday November 09, 2009 @12:21PM
(#931296)
"When heated in an oven or with a heat gun, the plastic shrinks by about 5/8ths and becomes thicker and more rigid, while retaining the colored design."
Re:Replacing $100K diagnostic chip fab with Shrinky-Dinks an...
by regularfry on Monday November 09, 2009 @03:31PM
(#931676)
It surprises me that 5/8ths is enough of a difference to be useful, but then I guess it's the way it bunches and forms a ridge that's important for the microfluidics, not the absolute feature size. Hm.
Re:Replacing $100K diagnostic chip fab with Shrinky-Dinks an...
by aarongough on Monday November 09, 2009 @05:15PM
(#931864)
It didn't strike me that 5/8ths wasn't actually a huge amount until I thought about it.
If the ability to form troughs/ridges is the important thing then I think that the PCB etch/make mold technique would be just as useful. But I'm not sure what the smallest feature size is that you can make with this method:
PCB etch/make mold method:
Laser-print an inverse pattern mask on clear plastic film
Expose a UV sensitive photoresist PCB using the mask
Etch the PCB
Make a polymer mold (or mold the final part) using the troughs/ridges formed by the etched/unetched copper on the PCB
I know this method has been used for replicating fingerprint patterns in the past (Mythbusters!) and I remember hearing it being used for a few other things...
Re:Replacing $100K diagnostic chip fab with Shrinky-Dinks an...
by josefresco on Monday November 09, 2009 @03:41PM
(#931693)
No he got downmodded because his comment didn't add to the conversation. One-line, humorous comments with no meat are generally frowned upon and become easy targets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfluidics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_microarray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab-on-a-chip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_Dinks
Seems like you would be able to get pretty small feature sizes if you had a really high resolution printer to begin with...
If the ability to form troughs/ridges is the important thing then I think that the PCB etch/make mold technique would be just as useful. But I'm not sure what the smallest feature size is that you can make with this method:
PCB etch/make mold method:
Laser-print an inverse pattern mask on clear plastic film
Expose a UV sensitive photoresist PCB using the mask
Etch the PCB
Make a polymer mold (or mold the final part) using the troughs/ridges formed by the etched/unetched copper on the PCB
I know this method has been used for replicating fingerprint patterns in the past (Mythbusters!) and I remember hearing it being used for a few other things...
(It drives me nuts that when people downvote you, but don't give an explanation)
Given your karma and how long you've been here, you should know better! FOR SHAME!