International Journal of Production Research

Vol. 47, No. 21, 1 November 2009, 60516067

Computer-aided process planning for fabrication of three-dimensional
microstructures for bioMEMS applications
Qing-Hui Wang
a
*
and Hai-Qing Gong
b
a
School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology,
Guangzhou, China;
b
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, Singapore
(Received 17 May 2008; final version received 3 June 2008)
In recent years, there has been increasing interest from both academies and
industries in developing micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technology for
biological applications, known as bioMEMS or biochips. Targeting at high
throughput biomolecule analysis, drug compound screening, and reduction of
reagent and sample volume, todays bioMEMS devices come with miniaturised
design and increased complexity of microstructures. Fabrication of such
a complex bioMEMS structure involves a number of layer fabrication cycles.
Moreover, a two-dimensional (2D) mask is required for each process. Thus,
manually generating such a complex process plan has become a difficult task.
With recent advances in material technology, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
silicone material has been widely applied in nowadays bioMEMS fabrication.
This paper proposes a novel automated process planning approach for
fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) microstructures in bioMEMS. This
approach can handle both PDMS casting and traditional micro fabrication
processes. It integrates a novel solid decomposition method and a feasibility
search algorithm. Also, it can directly handle the solid model of an integrated
microstructure with B-rep representation, and automatically generate the data of
the fabrication process plan along with masks. A process planner prototype has
been implemented. An application example is presented to demonstrate the
functionality of the prototype.
Keywords: CAD; CAPP; microfabrication; bioMEMS; photolithography; PDMS
1. Introduction
In recent years, there has been increasing interest from both academies and industries
in developing micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technology for biological
applications, known as bioMEMS. Today, bioMEMS technology is successfully used in
many fields, such as microfluidic devices in disease diagnostics, drug development
processes, life science research and environmental monitoring (Voldman et al. 1999).
Targeting at high throughput processing and volume reduction, today, the complexity of
bioMEMS microstructures is increasing rapidly as sophisticated functions, such as
chemical reactions and analyses, bioassays, high-throughput screens and sensors, are being
integrated into a single bioMEMS device. Since a single-level design does not allow two
channels to cross with connectivity, the increased complexity of channel systems requires
*Corresponding author. Email: qinghui15@gmail.com
ISSN 00207543 print/ISSN 1366588X online
2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/00207540802261152
http://www.informaworld.com
more complex connectivity than that can be generated in a single level. Thus, more and
more topologically complex three-dimensional (3D) designs have been adopted for
microstructures in bioMEMS.
To build up a complex microstructure, it needs a number of layer fabrication cycles,
i.e., depositing and etching. Among these processes, photolithography is the single most
important procedure that enables microstructures with microscopic dimensions to be
produced reliably in high volume. Normally, a mask, consisting of a transparent
supporting medium with precisely patterned opaque regions, is used in the photolitho-
graphy procedure to transfer a highly detailed two-dimensional (2D) pattern design to
production. Although many microfabrication techniques and the materials used for
producing bioMEMS are borrowed from IC industries, the field of bioMEMS has also
inspired the development of new microfabrication processes and materials. One of the
significant examples is the fabrication process using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) silicone
material (Xia and Whitesides 1998), which is now a common method for rapid prototyping
of complex multi-level microstructures in bioMEMS applications (Anderson et al. 2000,
Gadre et al. 2001, Fujii 2002, Jeon et al. 2002). However, there are increasing
difficulties in the manually generated process plans for the fabrication of complex
bioMEMS microstructures.
Other than the challenges in the planning of the fabrication process, design of
a bioMEMS system is another major concern. This has brought a growing need for
computer-aided design (CAD) support. The commercially available CAD software for
MEMS, such as MEM CAD, IntelliCAD and MEMS Pro., mainly concentrate on
electrostatic/mechanical simulations that are performed for design trade-off before
conducting costly and time-consuming microfabrication and testing (He et al. 1997,
Gabbay 1998). As a matter of fact, these systems can actually be classified into a process
simulation system. Using such systems, a 3D model of the MEMS structure is constructed
for simulation purposes from the data of process sequence and 2D masks. However, the
generation of the mask data and the process sequence is either through a users manual
operations or by using certain static templates. Furthermore, any later modifications to the
design have to rely on editing the 2D mask data or changing the process sequence.
During the past decade, direct 3D solid modelling has been widely accepted in
production design by industries, specifically in the design of a product with a complex 3D
structure. The combination of feature-based solid modelling and parametric-driven
technology is the mainstream approach for current industrial design. Starting from
a simple conceptual sketch, a complex 3D structure can be created easily by means of
various feature operations. By doing so, the 3D structure is modifiable through sketches
and features editing. With the feature-based modelling, individual parts or components are
assembled or welded into an integrated system by defining constraints. Today, CAD
modelling tools have become more powerful in their functionalities and much more
affordable as well. Moreover, CAD models created in one system can be exported to
another system through a common data exchange interface. With these advantages, the
solid-based CAD modelling technology can be well applied in designing complex
microstructures. Thus, in recent years, exploration efforts have been made to develop
techniques for designing an integrated microstructure first in a 3D model and then
decomposing it into individual 3D elements for fabrication. Cho et al. (2002) presented
their research work on developing a process planning system for micromachining of
complex structures in MEMS. In their work, algorithms are designed to decompose an
imported solid model, which has been constructed externally, into a set of 3D elements
6052 Q.-H. Wang and H.-Q. Gong
that are manufacturable, and then group them accordingly to generate an efficient mask
layout for microfabrication processes like photolithography and sacrificial layer etching.
As a fast evolving area, the fabrication of microstructures requires much more support
from CAD technologies. For example, the PDMS-based fabrication has been becoming
preferable in making prototypes of complex structures in bioMEMS due to its material
property and fabrication efficiency. PDMS-based fabrication is a casting process in nature
and is able to build a multi-level microstructure within one fabrication cycle. A process
planner, which can automatically generate the fabrication sequence and mask data, would
be a productive tool for efficient design and fabrication of bioMEMS microstructures.
This paper presents an automatic process planning approach for layer-fabrication of
complex microstructures for bioMEMS applications. It can directly handle solid models
of microstructures, and generate the fabrication sequence with corresponding mask data
for the entire structure. An algorithm for geometry decomposition and layer grouping has
been proposed to support both the typical and PDMS-based microfabrication processes.
The proposed approach has also been implemented into a prototype system. The rest of
the paper is organised into six sections: Section 2 briefs both the typical and PDMS-based
microfabrication processes for making a complex microstructure in bioMEMS; The
related geometrical modelling, representation of microstructures and bioMEMS devices
are explained in Section 3; the next section, Section 4 presents the novel approach for
automatic process planning, which is designed to generate the fabrication process sequence
and mask data. The implementation of the system prototype is illustrated and presented in
Section 5. The last section, Section 6, concludes this work. A case study using a bioMEMS
application example is also included as an appendix to demonstrate the prototype system.
2. Microfabrication processes for making microstructures in bioMEMS
In general, a microstructure in bioMEMS is built by a sequence of layer microfabrication
processes such as deposition and etching. Among these processes, photolithography is the
single most important procedure yielding 2D structures. It is used to transfer a pattern
envisioned by the designer into a real material. This process is illustrated in Figure 1.
It begins by selecting a substrate, typically, a silicon wafer or glass slide, which is then
coated by a photosensitive polymer (photoresist). A pattern that was drawn using a CAD
program is transferred to a mask. The mask, consisting of a transparent supporting
medium with a precisely patterned opaque region, is thus used to cast a highly detailed
shadow onto the prepared photoresist. Subsequently, the regions receiving an exposure of
ultraviolet (UV) light are chemically altered. After UV light exposure, the photoresist is
Figure1. Illustration of a photolithographic procedure.
International Journal of Production Research 6053
immersed in a solution that chemically removes either the exposed regions (positive
process) or the unexposed regions (negative process). Once the wafer is dried after taking
out of the solution, the photoresist is ready for a subsequent deposition (i.e., additive
process), or etch (i.e., subtractive process). Finally, the photoresist is selectively removed,
resulting in a microfabricated structure.
There are a number of more specialised procedures for making 3D microstructures,
such as stereolithography (Ikuta et al. 1994), laser-chemical 3D writing (Bloomstein and
Ehrlich 1992), modular assembly (Gonzalez et al. 1998), micro moulding (Li et al. 2001,
Zauner 2006), micro-hot-embossing (Lee et al. 2001), and micro casting (Lin et al. 2002).
However, these methods are not ideally convenient either for prototyping or
manufacturing and are not capable of making some specific types of structures as well.
The interest of utilising PDMS for the prototyping of bioMEMS is primarily driven by the
fact that the material is cost effective and easier to handle. It is basically a transparent
polymer that can be cast as a liquid and then cured to a solid at moderate temperatures.
In bioMEMS applications, a PDMS-based microstructure can be easily fabricated through
a micro-scale moulding process. This procedure provides a convenient route to fabricate
the bioMEMS devices with complex 3D structures (Anderson et al. 2000). Figure 2
illustrates a typical fabrication process of PDMS-based microstructures.
In many processes, two substrates or structures may need to be bonded together to
form a hybrid structure. A typical example can be seen in bonding of a glass wafer to
a structured silicon wafer to form an optically accessible sealed system. By utilising PDMS,
it is common to bond a PDMS structure onto a rigid substrate on which access ports for
liquid, air and electrodes are integrated (Fujii 2002). On the other hand, fabrication of
a topologically complex PDMS-based microstructure, in most cases, needs to decompose
the structure into a few pieces first, each of which is suitable to be fabricated using
one casting process. Then use bonding to form a complex bioMEMS structure (Anderson
et al. 2000). Many technologies have been developed to bond different materials together,
either with or without intermediary layers (Schmidt 1998, Liu et al. 2007). Most of the
approaches aligned a PDMS layer to another structure manually or semi-automatically
under a microscope. Hence, from the bonding process, then issue of limited alignment
accuracy comes. Typically, such alignment accuracy can reach 20 micrometers as shown in
reference Thorsen et al. (2002).
3. Geometrical modelling of bioMEMS devices
3.1 B-rep representation of microstructures in bioMEMS
Boundary representation (B-rep) is one of the most widely applied modelling schemes in
existing CAD systems. B-rep represents a solid indirectly by a representation of its
bounding surfaces. A B-rep solid is basically a volume contained in a set of surfaces, which
are topologically related to each other. The boundary of a solid separates points inside of
the solid from those outside. It has been demonstrated that B-rep models can be used to
conveniently represent a wide class of objects. In fact, the world famous geometry kernel
ACIS uses B-rep in its solid body representation (Corney and Lim 2001). The ACIS kernel
has been adopted by many mainstream CAD systems such as AutoCAD, Mechanical
Desktop, and Inventor. Thus, B-rep representation is widely used for geometrical
modelling in industrial applications. Figure 3 gives a schematic of B-rep representation
of solid objects.
6054 Q.-H. Wang and H.-Q. Gong
B-rep itself can only represent the geometry and topology of an object. No material
information is available within it. Therefore, in order to apply B-rep in bioMEMS
modelling, product attributes like material feature should be represented separately. In this
work, a solid object with material information is modelled by combining its B-rep
representation with one or more attribute features.
Figure 2. Fabrication process for PDMS-based microstructure. (a) Selecting a rigid substrate,
(b) fabricating a die by multi-level photolithographic procedure, (c) purring PDMS on top, and then
curing it thermally, (d) peeling PDMS structure off from die, (e) bonding the structure with a
substrate or with other microstructures forming a complex microstructure.
Figure 3. B-rep for solid objects.
International Journal of Production Research 6055
An integrated microstructure in bioMEMS is much more similar to an assembly system
than an individual part. This is so because it is generally composed of several components
with different materials. It is difficult to represent all the information of such an integrated
microstructure with a single solid body only. In this work, an assembled B-rep
representation of integrated microstructures is designed. Some important definitions for
the representation are illustrated as below:
. Part
A single microstructure part, Part(Geom, Mat), is defined as a solid body having
a consistent material property, where Geom is the bodys geometric definition, and
Mat is its material feature. The geometric definition Geom is represented as
a B-rep body which may contain one or more solid LUMPs (Figure 4).
. Component
A component Comp(Part/Assem, Trans) represents an individual assembly
component in assembly. An assembly component can be either a part (denoted
by Part) or a subassembly (denoted by Assem), which is an integrated component
consisting of a few parts. Trans denotes a transformation matrix that defines the
components position and orientation within the assembly.
. Bonding
Between two contacting components, generally, it requires a bonding operation to
bind them together. A bonding operation between two components Comp
i
and
Comp
j
is denoted here using Bond(Comp
i
, Comp
j
). As illustrated in Figure 4, it
describes a bonding relationship between two components using both geometric
data and process information.
. Assembly
Based on the definitions above, an assembly is an integrated microstructure which
is composed of several components. The assembly is denoted as Assem, and:
Assem fCompList fComp
1
, . . . , Comp
n
gjBondList fBond
1
, . . . , Bond
m
gg:
Attributes;
Component/Part;
Transformation; ...
CComp
Attributes;
Components;
Bondings; ...
CAssem
Attributes;
ObjectOne;
ObjectTwo;
Bonding Process; ...
CBond
Attributes;
Geometry;
Layers;
Feasible groups;
Material; ...
CPart
1,n
0,n
Attributes;
Mask data;
Depth; ...
CLayer
1,n
0,n
1,n
Assembled B-rep
representation of
microstructure in bioMEMS
Attributes;
A list of layers;
Direction;
Neighboring FGroups;
B-rep representation of
solid body in ACIS
Figure 4. The object hierarchy of the assembled B-rep representation of microstructures in
bioMEMS.
6056 Q.-H. Wang and H.-Q. Gong
Figure 4 illustrates the object hierarchy of the proposed assembled B-rep representation
and its connection with ACIS objects. The remaining two objects, namely CLayer and
CGroup, which are designed for geometry decomposition and layer grouping, will be
addressed later in Section 4.
3.2 Geometric modelling and data organising
In this work, microstructures are modelled externally using existing commercially
available CAD systems, and then imported with ACIS file format SAT file.
As mentioned, powered by the technologies of feature-based and parametric-driven
geometric modelling, todays commercial CAD modelling tools have evolved to be very
powerful and is already a common practice in industrial product design. Thus, geometric
modelling of micro-structures in a bioMEMS system using these existing systems
provides a convenient and efficient solution. Since all the microfabrication processes
are actually based on 2D photolithography, which produce geometric features like
extrusion add or extrusion cut, thus, in term of feature-based design, the solid body of
a microstructure can be seen as the result of a set of solid Boolean operations (union or
subtract) between extruded objects. An integrated bioMEMS microstructure could be
constructed as an assembly by defining geometric constraints among individual
components.
For a CAD modelling system, its capability of data exchange with other systems is one
of the most important features. Normally, data exchange translators are provided by
commercial CAD products. Since ACIS has been accepted as the geometry kernel by many
mainstream CAD modelling tools, its file format SAT is now supported by most of
the CAD systems for data exchange. In this work, the system prototype is built on the
ACIS kernel. This allows models of bioMEMS microstructures saved in SAT format to be
seamlessly imported into the system.
Even though most existing CAD systems can assign material information to each
individual part in a CAD model as an attached attribute, these attached attributes, in
many cases, are not exported together with solid models through a data exchange format
like SAT. The material feature is one of the most important pieces of information in the
planning fabrication process. Therefore, material information must be assigned to each
microstructure geometry Geom before process planning. Also another piece of information
needed to be integrated into the Assem representation is the bonding relation between two
microstructures. This is required for process plan generation. Thus the task of data
processing is to convert the imported B-rep model into the systems own model the
assembled B-rep representation Assem(1, n) (Figure 5).
4. Automated fabrication process planning
The aim of process planning is to automatically generate the fabrication process sequence
along with mask data. Figure 5 gives the workflow of the proposed approach. To put it
simply, the entire workflow could be divided into three phases: (1) CAD modelling and
data organising, which has been described. In this section, we focus on the next two
phases: (2) geometry decomposition and layer grouping, and (3) fabrication sequence and
mask data generation.
International Journal of Production Research 6057
4.1 Geometry decomposition and layer grouping
4.1.1 Model validity checking
As a preparatory step before geometry decomposition, it is necessary to validate imported
models. This is to make sure that the given microstructure can be built by a number of
microfabrication cycles along a given fabrication direction. The microstructure is a solid
body composed of a number of layers, each of which is fabricated by a photolithography-
based fabrication cycle. Thus, for a valid microstructure that can be manufactured by
means of microfabrication processes, its B-rep body Geom should be a solid body
constructed by a number of extrusion operations along the given fabrication direction.
In this concern, the model validity checking is conducted by traversing all B-rep faces of
the Geom. For a given fabrication direction Z-vec, the microstructure is valid for
processing only if all its faces are either perpendicular or parallel to Z-vec.
4.1.2 Decomposition
The geometry decomposition is to partition the microstructure into a number of solid
layers along the fabrication direction Z-vec. By doing so, each layer can be fabricated by
one cycle of photolithography-based fabrication. Such a solid element is like the geometry
extruded from a 2D pattern, and all its sections along Z-vec are unique. Since a
corresponding 2D photolithographic mask is required in each layer fabrication, the solid
element can be alternatively represented as Layer (Mask, Depth), where Mask denotes the
section of the layer; and Depth interprets the extruding depth information of the layer.
A mask is a 2D sheet that consists of one or more planar faces. It can be denoted as:
Mask
[
j
FACE
j
:
The decomposition algorithm starts with the traversal of all the faces of a B-rep body.
As the model validity checking has been done, all the faces are ensured either
perpendicular or parallel to the fabrication direction. If a face has a normal vector
SAT file
Data organizing
Assembled B-rep
representation of
microstructure in
bioMEMS
Geometry
decomposition
and layer
grouping
Setting material
information
Setting bonding
information
Model validity
checking
Data of layers
and feasible
groups
Generating
process plan
and masks
DXF files
Process
plan
......
......
Geometric modeling
and data processing
Solid modeling of
bioMEMS microstructures
externally using feature-
based design
Figure 5. The proposed approach of automatic process planning.
6058 Q.-H. Wang and H.-Q. Gong
perpendicular to Z-vec, then the face is determined as a side face of an extrusion feature,
and the traversal continues by checking the next face which is the immediate neighbour to
the current face from the bodys B-rep representation. If a planar faces normal vector is
parallel to Z-vec, it indicates the body structure has different sections over the face.
Thus the face will then be used to partition the B-rep body; such faces are named as cutting
faces. After traversal of all the faces of the entire B-rep structure, a list of cutting faces
can be determined. This list of cutting faces will then undergo a duplication check to
remove any duplicated plane that may reside on the same plane. As a result, cutting faces
are a list of unique parallel planar faces. Between each pair of neighbouring cutting
faces, the solid material is represented as Layer (Mask, Depth). From the ways of
determining cutting faces, it is obvious that the masks of two layers that are directly
neighbouring, Layer
i
(Mask
i
, Depth
i
) and Layer
i1
(Mask
i1
, Depth
i1
), must be different
in shape, i.e.:
Mask
i
6 Mask
i1
:
Therefore, the entire geometry of a multi-layer structure can be represented as the union
of a set of layers:
Geom
[
i
Layer
i
Mask
i
, Depth
i
:
4.1.3 Layer grouping
Comparing with traditional processes such as deposition and etching that can build only
one layer of material within one fabrication cycle, PDMS casting is a much more efficient
process as it is able to build a multi-layer structure within one cycle. The purpose of layer
grouping here is to group the layers, which are generated in the decomposition phase, into
a few feasible groups, each of which corresponds to one PDMS casting process. Basically,
a feasible group is a geometric union of a few neighbouring layers and a multi-layer
structure must be feasible in that it can be peeled from a die along the fabrication
direction. For example, the structures shown in Figures 6(a) and 6(c) cannot be peeled off
along the fabrication direction. Hence, they cannot be built by one PDMS casting process.
The structures shown in Figures 6(b) and 6(d) can be peeled off along either the direction
of Z-vec or Z-vec. By applying appropriate grouping criteria, the multi-layer structures
in Figures 6(b) and 6(d) are feasible.
We define the geometry of a feasible group as FGroup:
FGroup
[
i
Layer
i
Mask
i
, Depth
i
:
The entire geometry of a microstructure Geom can then be alternatively represented as
a union of a set of feasible components as below:
Geom
[
i
FGroup
i
:
To group relative layers into a set of feasible structures, a novel algorithm for multi-layer
feasibility search is proposed.
International Journal of Production Research 6059
Given two layers Layer
i1
and Layer
i
, which are immediate neighbours along
a fabrication direction Z-vec, their relationship is defined as:
If (Mask
i
.SubtractBy(Mask
i+1
) NULL
.AND. Mask
i
.SubtractBy(Mask
i+1
) !NULL)
Then
Mask
i
Mask
i+1
;
If (Mask
i+1
.SubtractBy(Mask
i
) NULL
.AND. Mask
i+1
.SubtractBy(Mask
i
) ! NULL)
Then
Mask
i
Mask
i+1
.
The relationship between the two neighbouring layers is denoted as Rel(Layer
i
,
Layer
i1
), and
RelLayer
i
, Layer
i1

FORWARD; ifMask
i
Mask
i1

REVERSED; ifMask
i
Mask
i1

OVERLAPPED; others
8
>
<
>
:
:
Multi-layer feasibility search algorithm
Input: A list of layers LayerList {Layer
1
, Layer
2
, . . . , Layer
n
};
Output: A list of feasible groups FGroupList {FGroup
1
, FGroup
2
, . . . , FGroup
n
};
Begin
For (i 1; i LayerList.count( ); i++)
{
objLayer LayerList[i];
If (i 1)
Then
Figure 6. An illustration of feasibility multi-layer structures.
6060 Q.-H. Wang and H.-Q. Gong
{
Create a new feasible group object objFGroup;
objFGroup.addLayer(objLayer);
FGroupList.addGroup(objFGroup);
Continue;
}
objLayer
upper
LayerList[i 1];
objLayer
lower
objLayer;
Calculate the relationship Rel(objLayer
upper
, objLayer
lower
);
If (Rel OVERLAPPED)
Then
{
Create a new feasible group object objFGroup;
objFGroup.addLayer(objLayer);
FGroupList.addGroup(objFGroup);
Continue;
}
If (objFGroup.layer_count( ) 1)
Then
{
objFGroup.addLayer(objLayer);
objFGroup.direction =Rel;
}
Else//objFComp.layer-count( ) 41
{
If (objFGroup.direction Rel)
Then
{
objFGroup.addLayer(objLayer);
}
Else//direction changed
{
Create a new feasible group object objFGroup;
objFGroup.addLayer(objLayer);
FGroupList.addGroup(objFGroup);
}
}
}
End
4.2 Process plan generation
After the geometry decomposition and layer grouping are completed, the system can now
derive the mask data and the depth for each layer fabrication by retrieving information
from the layers geometry. Basically, the process of building a single part of a PDMS-
based microstructure has two phases: firstly, a few cycles of layer fabrications are involved
International Journal of Production Research 6061
to make a multi-layer die; secondly, PDMS processes like casting and peeling are applied
to build the microstructure using the die. To build an integrated microstructure in
bioMEMS, which is composed of several parts, it is necessary to have an overall
fabrication sequence of a number of layer fabrication processes and other auxiliary
processes like bonding and PDMS processes. In this work, the assembled B-rep
representation expresses the integrated microstructure with a hierarchical structure that
organises the data into different levels. Figure 7 demonstrates an example of the assembled
B-rep representation after geometric decomposition and layer grouping. The layers
resulting from decomposition are represented by the leaf nodes, while layers are grouped
after a parent node. For a part with PDMS material, the parent nodes of layers represent
feasible groups, which are grouped for the PDMS casting process. While for a part with
non-PDMS material, the parent node of several layers is the part that they belong to.
The overall process sequence is then generated based on the hierarchical structure with
the following steps:
Step 1: Add an additional bonding object between any two neighbouring feasible groups.
For a decomposed part, to integrate these feasible groups into an integrated PDMS
structure, a bonding process must be adopted. The procedure is to search for contacting
faces between the two feasible groups, and then add the contacting faces found into the
bonding object.
Step 2: Generate fabrication sequences for each group of layers at end levels. For
a PDMS part, this layer fabrication sequence is needed to build layers into a multi-layer
die for the PDMS casting process, which will be used in a later phase. The order of the
sequence should be revised if the feasible groups direction is marked as REVISED.
Simultaneously, a DXF file is generated to save mask data for each layer fabrication based
on the layers geometric data.
Step 3: Generate PDMS processes for all feasible groups, and then append these PDMS
processes into the sequence
Step 4: Search for bonding information among feasible groups, and combine bonding
processes into the sequence.
Step 5: Search the bonding information among the assemblys components, and generate
relevant bonding process for component integration.
Part1 (PDMS)
Feasible group 1
Feasible group 2
Layer 1
Layer 2
Layer 3
Layer 4
Layer 1
Layer 2
Part2 (non-
PDMS)
Bonding
Forward
Reversed
Layer 5
Bonding

...
Assembled B-rep
model
Component 1
Component 2
Figure 7. An example of assembled B-rep model after decomposition and layer grouping for
process planning.
6062 Q.-H. Wang and H.-Q. Gong
5. Prototype implementation
The proposed approach has been implemented into a software prototype. The software
was programmed in Visual C and using ACIS as the geometry kernel.
The software architecture of the system prototype is illustrated in Figure 8. The system
is designed with a component-based structure, in which the separate functions are
encapsulated and implemented into a set of dynamic link libraries (DLLs). The GUI
component provides a friendly user interface. CAD models created externally are loaded
into the system through a data interface. For the purpose of better visualisation, the user
can view the model in 3D space from an OpenGL enabled graphic window. The CAD
model together with the data for process planning is managed by a document object, which
is actually an object of an assembled B-rep representation system. The model manager is
designed to manage all the operations to the CAD model, which include the data
processing, the geometry decomposition and layer grouping. Since the CAD model is
represented as B-rep bodies supported by ACIS, the model manager encapsulated the
ACIS functions for B-rep bodies operations. The process planner is responsible for
generating the entire process plan based on the results of geometric processing.
Furthermore, the user can view the generated process plan and the corresponding mask
of each process interactively through a process browser in a GUI. A process plan is
exported together with a list of mask files which are represented in drawing exchange
format DXF. DXF files are basically text files, which contain drawing information that
can be read by drawing tools such as AutoCAD. A case study is provided in Appendix 1
for detailed explanation.
6. Conclusion
With the fast advances in microfabrication technology, it is a trend that bioMEMS systems
come with higher throughput design and increased complexity in microstructure. The paper
presented an automatic process planning approach and the software prototype for
microstructure fabrication in bioMEMS applications. Different from most existing MEMS
ACIS kernel
Model manager
Data Interafce
OpenGL display
in 3D space
Process planer
G
U
I
Document
Process
browser
Information
output
CAD
Modeling
tool
DXF files
Process
plan
......
......
SAT
file
Assembled B-rep
representation of
microstructures

Figure 8. Schematic overview of the system prototype.
International Journal of Production Research 6063
CAD systems, the proposed system is able to generate the process plan directly from a 3D
solid model, which was designed using an external CADmodelling tool. Both mask data and
fabrication sequence can be automatically generated by the software prototype.
Many bioMEMS systems are designed with a hybrid microstructure that is integrated
by bonding a few microstructures together. It is particularly so for high throughput
bioMEMS systems which require complex microfluidic channel and valve structures.
In this work, a novel assembled B-rep representation was proposed to handle the
representation of these hybrid microstructures for process planning. Not only geometric
information, but also the material feature of each component and bonding relations
among components can be represented. Based on this representation, an algorithm of
geometry decomposition and layer grouping has been proposed to support PDMS-based
microfabrication processes. Using the algorithm, a complex multi-level PDMS micro-
structure can be decomposed into a list of layers first and then grouped into a few feasible
layer groups, each of which can be built within one cycle of a PDMS fabrication process.
It is worth mentioning that the algorithms proposed in this solution are not limited to
PDMS fabrication, which was dealt with in this work. The decomposition, layer grouping
and the mask generation algorithm can be extended to support other MEMS/bioMEMS
applications such as injection moulding, or hot embossing, with which multilayer
structures are involved.
A system prototype has been designed using object-orientated methodology, and
implemented using VC and an ACIS geometry kernel. With this prototype, a process
plan with mask data and fabrication sequence can be automatically generated. It helps
improve the productivity in the design-fabrication cycle of bioMEMS systems with
complex structures.
Acknowledgements
This research was conducted under grant NSTB/43/11/4-1from the Agency for Science, Technology
and Research (A*STAR) of Singapore.
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Figure 9. (a) A PDMS-based bioMEMS microstructure, (b) section view.
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Figure 10. Illustrations of the process planning using implemented software prototype. (a) Solid
model of an integrated microstructure in bioMEMs, (b) an explosive display of resultant feasible
groups after geometry decomposition and layer grouping, (c) generating mask data and process
sequence.
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Appendix 1. Case study
Figure 9 shows the solid structure of a microfluidic bioMEMS chip, which is designed for high
throughput polymerase chain reactions (PCR) for genetic analysis. The details of the application can
be found in reference Liu et al. (2007). The primary components in this PCR biochip device are:
(a) an array of micro reaction wells; (b) the sample loading micro-channel for a microfluidic DNA
sample injection into the wells; (c) an array of bridge channels connecting the wells to the sample
loading channel; and (d) an array of venting channel with holes connecting to the wells to vent air
initially trapped in wells during the sample loading into each well. This microfabricated device or
PCR chip allows a large number of disease-specific DNA oligonucleotides to be preloaded into the
wells and react to the incoming patient sample loaded into wells through the sample loading channel.
The PCR process in each well allows the monitoring of the disease gene expression through
fluorescent optical emission from a PCR product in each well, which is subjected to a light
excitation. The fluorescence emissions from wells are to be detected using CCD camera or a PMT
in a scanning mode.
In order to achieve a compact design and optimised microfluidic performances, the PCR chip
components are to be fabricated in a PDMS silicone-based multi-level microstructure. The PDMS
structure is integrated with a rigid silicon or glass substrate at its bottom by adhesive bonding.
The PCR chip device is modelled as an assembly of two individual parts in external CAD software.
The assembly model with SAT format was imported into the prototype system and displayed in
an OpenGL-enabled 3D graphics window (Figure 10a). The user can view the 3D model and
interactively manipulate it for better visualisation by means of the toolbar provided. A structure
browser is designed to show the hierarchical model structure information (Figure 10a). Also, the user
may check the loaded model and set the material feature to each individual part through interactions
like mouse picking in the graphic window or selection in the structure browser.
With the proposed method of geometry decomposition and layer grouping, this PDMS
microstructure is decomposed into six layers and then grouped into three multi-layer feasible
structures. The results of decomposition and layer grouping can be displayed in an exploded view in
the 3D graphic window for user verification (Figure 10b). The attributes of each layer or each multi-
layer structure, such as name, colour and depth, can be seen and editable from the structure browser.
Once the user has verified the generated layers and structures, the fabrication process plan can
then be generated automatically by the process planner. The process browser displays the fabrication
sequence in a hierarchical tree style. For each layer fabrication process, there is a corresponding
mask generated and the mask geometry could be displayed in a 2D view in the graphic window
(Figure 10c). From the browser, the user is allowed to do some editing on the automatically
generated process plan.
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