Flow characteristics in a microchannel system integrated with arrays of micro-pressure sensors using a polymer material

The use of a polymer material to fabricate a complicated microchannel system that is integrated with arrays of pressure sensors is presented. This channel can allow either gas or liquid to flow through for basic microfluidic studies. This developed fabrication process is much simpler, and is almost the reverse of the surface micromachining process usually used for the microchannel system. This allows for the use of SU-8 to fabricate, by lithography, the diaphragm and the cavities used for these pressure sensors and the channel. The height for the diaphragm, the cavities and the channel can be readily varied from few to hundreds of microns by spin-coating different thicknesses of the SU-8 layer. This will allow a much wider measurement range and flow conditions. More detailed design and developed fabrication techniques are presented. The pressure distributions are measured inside the channel and are compared with the analysis. The results obtained in this work clarify some of the arguments which existed in the literature.