A polymer specifically designed for microfluidics

Prototyping real devices

Ever been frustrated by silicone rubber prototypes that are difficult to handle and absorb proteins and swell during use? We have. Therefore we developed the OSTEMER resins to  rapidly manufacture hard and chemically resistant chips with the look and feel of thermoplastics but that can be easily integrated and bonded with almost any material without plasma treatment, glue or adhesives. The first polymer specifically developed for lab-on-chips.

There are OSTEMER resins that can be casted, injection molded, nano-imprinted or photo-patterned. It is even possible to scale up manufacturing from to a volume process called reaction injection molding (RIM). We developed the OSTEMER resins for researchers and product developers that did not want to rely on expensive and time-consuming thermoplastic prototyping for building realistic user-ready devices. Today our resins are used by hundreds of researchers worldwide for academic research and for product development.

  • Rapid turn-around times
  • Multi-layer devices
  • Integrate with other materials using dry bonding (filters, membranes etc) – 
  • End-result looks and feels like injection molded plastics
  • Use silicone or aluminum molds

Scale-up with injection molding

Easily automate manufacturing of microfluidic cartridges by reaction injection holding (RIM). The low viscosity of OSTEMER resins enable filling even the smallest nano-features in closed molds. After rapid UV-curing through a transparent lid, the cartridges can be easily removed from the silicone or aluminium molds, transferred on a carrier and broken up into individual chips that can be thermally bonded to many different substrate materials.

  • Low bending (minimal cure-induced stresses)
  • Excellent replication (low viscosity enables nano-replication)
  • Can be integrated with other parts without using glue
  • Easily coat plastic parts with metal due to built-in anchors

Cell studies and organ-on-a-chip

The ease of fabrication of complex structures in combination with cell compatibility and the possibility to acquire excellent fluorescent images using standard cell culture fluorophores, makes OSTEMER an attractive material for cell-based microfluidics.

  • Compatible with many cell lines
  • Compatible with common cell culture fluorophores
  • Easy fabrication of multilayer devices
  • Low water permeability

Powerful photo structuring

 

Off-stoichiometry thiol-ene resins are particularly well-suited for photo structuring high aspect ratio structures. OSTEMER 220 Litho is developed specifically for photolithographic definition, but can also be shaped using molds – or a combination of both! It is a one-stage cure resin (only UV) and after full cure it exhibits surface active thiol groups available for direct surface modification through grafting.

  • Rapid turn-around times
  • High aspect ratio structures
  • Surface reactive thiol groups for direct surface modification
  • One cure (UV)