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Article
Experimental analysis of the surface roughness evolution of etched glass for micro/nanofluidic devices
Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
  • Juan Ren, Iowa State University
  • Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, Iowa State University
  • Sriram Sundararajan, Iowa State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Submitted Manuscript
Publication Date
1-1-2011
DOI
10.1088/0960-1317/21/2/025012
Abstract

Roughness of channel surfaces, both deterministic and random, is known to affect the fluid flow behavior in micro/nanoscale fluidic devices. This has relevance particularly for applications involving non-Newtonian fluids, such as in biomedical lab-on-chip devices. While several studies have investigated effects of relative large, deterministic surface structures on fluid flow, the effect of random roughness on microfluidic flow remains relatively unexplored. In this study, the effects of processing conditions for wet etching of glass including etching time and etching orientation on centre-line average (Ra) and the autocorrelation length (ACL) were investigated. Statistical distribution of the roughness was also studied. Results indicated that ACL can be tailored in the range of 1–4 µm by changing etching time in horizontal etching while Ra was found to increase weakly with etching time in all three etching orientations. Analysis of the experimental data using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov goodness-of-fit hypothesis test shows that the glass surface roughness does not follow a Gaussian distribution, as is typically assumed in the literature. Instead, the T location-scale distribution fits the roughness data with 1.11% error. These results provide promising insights into tailoring surface roughness for improving microfluidic devices.

Comments

This is a manuscript of an article published as Ren, Jing, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, and Sriram Sundararajan. "Experimental analysis of the surface roughness evolution of etched glass for micro/nanofluidic devices." Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 21, no. 2 (2011): 025012. DOI:10.1088/0960-1317/21/2/025012. Posted with permission.

Rights
This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/21/2/025012.
Copyright Owner
IOP Publishing Ltd.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Juan Ren, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian and Sriram Sundararajan. "Experimental analysis of the surface roughness evolution of etched glass for micro/nanofluidic devices" Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering Vol. 21 Iss. 2 (2011) p. 025012
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/sriram_sundararajan/26/