FABRICATION METHODTo achieve a mass

FABRICATION METHODTo achieve a mass production of precise plastic microchannels, a microinjection molding process, which is the most productive one among various micromolding technologies, was carried out using a micromold of halfcircular microstructures. Figure 1 schematically shows the fabrication method of the micromold based on the MSMS concept and its utilization in a replication process. As the first step, a deep X-ray lithography (DXRL) process using a synchrotron radiation (Fig. 1a) is performed to define apolymeric mother structure of half-circular microchannel structures (Fig. 1b). The straight microchannel with an excellent surface quality can be efficiently realized through the DXRL process. The subsequent metal electro-forming onto the mother structure (Fig. 1c) produces a metallic micromold module (in other words, sectioned micromold module, SMM) having the convex microstructures, which is the reverse pattern of the mother structure(Fig. 1d). The half-circular microchannels in the original mother structure can be replicated by a micromolding process using the fabricated metal SMM (Fig. 1e).