Rapid fabrication of microfluidic paper-based analytical devices by microembossing

In this study, fabrication of microfluidic paper based analytical devices (μPADs) by microembossing was proposed. Different from the embossing methods described in the literature, the filter paper was embossed such that a protruded structure was formed, which subsequently became the channel after heating the wax at the backside of the filter paper. It was found that, when using the Whatman No. 3 filter paper, the embossing pressure needed to be larger than 50 kg/cm² in conjunction with using a minimal 2-mm wide channel, and the wax heating time ranged from 15 to 45 s in order to obtain a reliable μPAD with repetitive and consistent results. In addition, there was no need of a hydrophobic material as the backside support. The glucose detection was demonstrated using the μPADs as fabricated and a linear relationship was obtained between 5 and 50 mM glucose concentrations. With the proposed method, the processing time of fabricating μPADs can be reduced within approximately 1 min.