\ SUMMARY
Executive summary
Jing Chen, Ph.D. · Chengyu Feng · Yexian Wu · Yanxing Hao — HiComp Microtech August 2026
WHAT THIS PAPER ARGUES, IN FIVE LINES
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PDMS is a production material. It holds roughly 35% of the microfluidics market by material (2025) [8] and is the final material in shipping organ-on-a-chip, liquid-biopsy, droplet and single-cell products.
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The failure mode is the process, not the polymer. Open-mold casting, hand mixing and manual punching cannot be staffed, trained or automated.
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Closed-mold molding fixes it. Thickness held to ±5 µm, flatness < 2 µm, through-holes molded in at Ø ≥ 0.30 mm with 0.10 mm alignment, at up to 80,000 pieces per month.
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The interface is the real bottleneck. Push-fit tubing in a punched hole leaks and tears. Three routes — Luer adapter, molded cartridge, hybrid PDMS–plastic — close that gap at different volumes.
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Injection molding is a program, not a swap. Start DFM when you expect more than about 500 units per month with a frozen design and compatible chemistry — and keep PDMS shipping while the tool is built.
Polydimethylsiloxane has spent twenty years being described as a prototyping material — something you use to prove a concept before you move to "real" manufacturing in thermoplastic. That description is now wrong often enough to be expensive. PDMS is the largest single material segment of the microfluidics market by material share, and a significant number of commercial instruments ship today with a PDMS consumable at the center of the workflow, not as a stopgap but as the product.
The reason PDMS acquired its reputation is not the polymer. It is the process that most groups use to form it. Pouring a degassed prepolymer over an SU-8 master in an open dish and curing it in an oven is a laboratory technique, and it behaves like one: thickness is uncontrolled, edges curl, bubbles are trapped, dust is embedded, inlets are punched by hand, and the master delaminates after a limited number of castings. None of those failures are properties of PDMS. They are properties of open-mold casting.
This paper sets out what changes when PDMS is formed in a closed, integrated mold under calibrated pressure, at production scale, in a cleanroom, by trained technicians rather than by the scientists who designed the chip. It then addresses the problem that usually blocks industrialization even after the chip itself is solved — the interface between an elastomeric chip and a rigid instrument — and gives three production-proven routes across that gap. Finally, it offers a decision framework for the question every successful PDMS product eventually faces: when, and whether, to move to injection molding.
\ CONTENTS
The guide in four parts
\ DOWNLOAD
Download the white paper
Cite as: Chen J., Feng C., Wu Y., Hao Y. Industrializing PDMS — a manufacturing and decision guide. HiComp Microtech white paper
\ WORKING WITH HICOMP
How an engagement runs
For a new PDMS product, the path from first conversation to first delivery is typically six to seven weeks of commercial and technical work, followed by two to three weeks of tooling and first article, and then the ramp described in Part 4.
STEP
WHAT HAPPENS
TYPICAL DURATION
Initial meeting
Application, volumes, constraints and an indicative quote
~ 1 week
NDA / CDA
Executed so design files can be shared
~ 1 week
Design evaluation
Technical review of the design; manufacturability assessment and a written proposal
1 – 2 weeks
Technical meeting
Clarification of requirements, tolerances, materials and integration route
~ 1 week
Official quote
Firm pricing against the agreed specification
3 – 5 days
Contract & PO
Commercial terms concluded
~ 1 week
Tooling & first article
Mold design, replication and first-article inspection
2 – 3 weeks
Initial delivery
First qualified production run
~ 1,000 pcs in month 1
Beyond PDMS, the same organization runs cleanroom micro injection molding, MEMS and glass microfabrication, hot embossing, surface functionalization, reagent storage and lyophilization, and automated assembly — which is what makes it possible to run a PDMS line and a plastics DFM program against the same design, with one team accountable for both.
Service pages: PDMS manufacturing · Cleanroom injection molding · Product design & DFM · Assembly & automation.
\ AUTHORS
About the authors
Jing Chen, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO of HiComp Microtech. Former professor with thirty years in MEMS and microfabrication before founding the company.
Yexian Wu, Ph.D.
CTO of HiComp Microtech. Fifteen years in MEMS and microfluidic product development at SIMTech, Nanoworld AG and Qinpex AG.
Chengyu Feng
Director of R&D at HiComp Microtech. Over a decade of experience in microfluidic product development, leading chip design and process engineering.
Yanxing Hao
Head of Business Development, Europe. Former co-founder of iGenome ApS in Denmark, with over 15 years in life sciences and international trade.
\ APPENDIX A
Glossary
Barrer
Unit of gas permeability. PDMS is approximately 800 Barrer for O₂ and 3,800 Barrer for CO₂.
Closed mold
A mold that fully encloses the part, so the top surface is defined by the tool rather than by a free liquid surface.
DFM
Design for manufacturability — the engineering work of adapting a design to a specific production process.
Hybrid integration
A device combining PDMS (for fine features and biology) with injection-molded plastic (for rigidity, alignment and handling).
LogP
Octanol–water partition coefficient; a measure of lipophilicity. Compounds above LogP ≈ 1.85 bind appreciably to PDMS.
Master of record
The single lithographic master from which all production tooling is replicated.
Replica mold
A production tool cast from a replica master rather than from the original lithographic master.
Soft lithography
The family of techniques in which an elastomer is patterned by replication from a master.
SU-8
An epoxy-based negative photoresist used to build high-aspect-ratio lithographic masters.
\ APPENDIX B
Sources and notes
Manufacturing specifications, capacity figures, tolerances and leak-test data in this guide are HiComp production specifications and in-house test results. Material property values and the published findings referenced in Parts 1 to 4 are drawn from the following sources.
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ISO 22916:2022, Microfluidic devices — Interoperability requirements for dimensions, connections and initial device classification. International Organization for Standardization, 2022 (supersedes IWA 23:2016; under revision).
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Auner, A. W. et al. Chemical-PDMS binding kinetics and implications for bioavailability in microfluidic devices. Lab on a Chip 19, 864–874 (2019).
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Gokaltun, A. et al. Recent advances in nonbiofouling PDMS surface modification strategies applicable to microfluidic technology. Technology 5, 1–12 (2017).
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Gokaltun, A. A. et al. Simple surface modification of poly(dimethylsiloxane) via surface segregating smart polymers for biomicrofluidics. Journal of Materials Chemistry B (2023) — PDMS gas-permeability values.
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Shakeri, A., Khan, S., Jarad, N. A. & Didar, T. F. The fabrication and bonding of thermoplastic microfluidics: a review. Materials 15, 6478 (2022).
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Amadeo, F. et al. Reusable master molds for soft lithography. Micromachines 12, 1392 (2021).
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Silverio, V. et al. Overcoming technological barriers in microfluidics: leakage testing. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 10, 958582 (2022).
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Grand View Research. Microfluidics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report (2025) — material-segment share.
© 2026 HiComp Microtech. CytoSorter® is a registered trademark of its respective owner. Specifications are subject to change and should be confirmed for a specific project.
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