Multi-scale optical metrology for the quality control of polymer microfluidic systems

Micro injection moulding is a replication technology enabling large scale production of polymer-based micro products. To this respect, optical measuring technologies were selected to perform the quality control of a polymer micro-component: an optical coordinate measuring machine (CMM) and a white light interferometer (WLI) for dimensional and surface measurements respectively.

Measuring results on polymer moulded parts produced under different process conditions were compared with dimensions and surface characteristics of the micro featured tool employed during experiments, in order to evaluate the replication accuracy of the moulding process. Comprehensive uncertainty budgets of both dimensional and topographical measurements were estimated, in order to ensure traceability of measurements.