The Eighth International Conference on Miniaturized Systems in Chemistry and Life Science - MicroTas 2004 - is an annual meeting focusing on the research, development and application of miniaturized technologies and methodologies in chemistry and life science. The conference is celebrating its tenth anniversary after the first workshop at the University of Twente, The Netherlands in 1994. This research field is rapidly developing and changing towards a domain where core competence areas such as microfluidics, micro- and nanotechnology, materials science, chemistry, biology, and medicine are melting together to a truly interdisciplinary meeting place. This volume is the second in a two volume set, a valuable reference collection to all working in this field. Micro Total Analysis Systems 2004 Volume 2 Proceedings of µTAS 2004 8th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences By Thomas Laurell, Johan Nilsson, Klavs Jensen, D. Jed Harrison, Jörg P. Kutter The Royal Society of Chemistry Copyright © 2004 The Royal Society of Chemistry All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-85404-896-0 Contents Volume 2, Day 2 - Tuesday, September 28,2004, Tuesday Poster Session - MEMS Technology I, Tuesday Poster Session - Materials, Tuesday Session A - Pumping, Tuesday Session B - Protein Crystallization, Day 3 - Wednesday, September 29,2004, Plenary V, Wednesday Session A - Cell Lysis, Wednesday Session B - Separation, Wednesday Session A - Gene Analysis, Wednesday Session B - NMR, Wednesday Plenary VI, Wednesday Poster Session - Applications III, Wednesday Poster Session - MEMS Technology II, Wednesday Session A - Two-Phase Systems, Wednesday Session B - Coupling to MS, Day 4 - Thursday, September 30,2004, Thursday Session A - Cell Culture I1, Thursday Session B - Analysis, Thursday Session A - Microfluidics, Others, Thursday Session B - On-Chip Monitoring, AUTHOR INDEX, 587, KEY WORD INDEX, 596, CHAPTER 1 FABRICATING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL CHANNEL FOR MICRO-FLUIDIC DEVICES BY LASER ABLATION Yoshikazu Yoshida, Tsutomu Neichi, Retsu Tahara, Jun Yamada, Hiroyuki Yamada and Nobuyuki Terada Toyo University, 2100 Kujirai, Kawagoe, Saitama 350-8585 Yamanashi Pref. Industrial Technology Center, 2094 Kofu, Yamanashi 400-0055, Japan University of Yamanashi, 1110 Tamaho, Nakakoma, Yamanashi 409-3898, Japan Abstract This paper describes the fabrication in resin of micro-channels for micro-fluidic devices such as the µTAS (Micro Total Analysis System) by UV laser ablation process. A number of heat-hardening resin-films are layered on a soda glass. A laser fabricates a part of the channel on each film for every lamination. Then three-dimensional (3-D) confluence channels are fabricated. The fabricated channels are 45-180 µm in depth and 50-300 µm in width. The through holes are made in the laminate film with a laser. An inlet pipe for a micro-pump is inserted into the hole. Keywords: µTAS, UV laser, lamination, resin-films, blood 1. Introduction Recently, in various fields the necessity for small and highly sensitive micro-fluidic analysis systems has increase. Therefore a µTAS has received considerable attention. The µTAS is the size of a card, and has miniaturized channels, detectors, and other elements for fluidic analysis. The advantages of this system are the reduced need of fluidic samples, reagents, and hours of detection. The size of the fluidic analysis elements on the µTAS is a few score micrometers. There are many fabrication methods of micro-channels through semiconductor technology, plastic molding, and laser fabrication of resins. The laser fabrication method has recently been receiving much attention. The advantages of this method are: one stroke fabrication of grooves for channels, an easy change of groove patterns, and 3-D fabrication to allow grooves with slopes and differences in levels. We have been proposing the method which uses silicon or quartz as the substrate part of µTAS, build the micro working parts and electrode in advance onto the substrate, then create the flow path and cistern on the resin part formed on the substrate, An ultraviolet pulse laser was used to form such items as the flow path. A number of heat-hardening resin-films were layered on a soda glass. A laser fabricated a part of the channel on each film for every lamination, and then a 3-D micro-channel structure was fabricated. Two types of flow path, a plane and an overpass, are fabricated. 2. Experiment equipment The substrate is soda glass laminated by heat-hardening resin-film. This film is made of two films, one of 25µm thick polyimide and the other 20µm thick epoxy. Channels are fabricated by a pulse Nd:YAG laser system (Brilliant; Quantel) and a KrF excimer laser system (LPX220; Lambda Physik, AG). For the experiment condition, the YAG has a wavelength of 266nm, pulse energy of 3.1mJ, pulse width of 4.3nsec, and repetition rate of 10Hz. The laser beam is fix