Grant: Alliance Grants

Microfluidic devices can manipulate tiny fluid volumes on a microscale, and they have revolutionized the way scientists and engineers approach fluidic experiments, enabling the precise control of small volumes of fluids, and the integration of various functionalities on a single chip. This has paved the way for breakthroughs in many fields such as fluidics, biochemistry, genomics, proteomics, diagnosis, drug discovery, organ on chip, and cell biology, where the manipulation and analysis of minute quantities of substances are paramount. Various fabrication processes have been developed for microfluidic devices including soft-molding, lithography, semiconductor etching, 3D printing, laser cutting, and deposition techniques. However, these fabrication processes are mainly tailored towards specific processes needs. There are no industrial-scale customized and multi-user semiconductor fabrication processes available for microfluidics. However, wafer-scale multi-user platforms can greatly benefit both the research and industrial communities by providing scaling up and customizability of the manufacturing thus making it available to wider users at an attractive unit cost. However, with these opportunities major challenges exist as a versatile microfluidic fabrication process platform requires careful consideration of materials selection, fabrication techniques development, quality control, and adaptability for wider application requirements. To address these challenges, this NSERC Alliance MITACS Accelerate grant brings together a semiconductor micromanufacturing industrial leader Teledyne Micralyne, and a microfluidic device designer to develop a wafer-scale and versatile microfluidic fabrication processes adaptable to major microfluidic applications. In addition to scientific discovery, it will provide a unique research and training opportunity for HQPs to enhance their skills in the emerging fields of microsystems, semiconductor fabrication, instrumentation, and microfluidics through closely working with industrial leader. The research will help bolster Canada's leadership in the semiconductor manufacturing thus propelling further innovations and economic growth.