This paper outlines the fabrication process of the partition component, a crucial element in digital PCR. The partition component consists of thousands of micro-wells capable of holding small volumes of reagents. In this study, the partition component was created in a honeycomb structure, with hexagonally shaped micro-wells measuring 100 μm in size and spaced 20 μm apart. The fabrication process involved using photolithography, lift-off, and electroplating techniques. Photolithography and lift-off processes were employed to create a pattern of Cu metal layers in a hexagonal honeycomb arrangement on a glass substrate. Subsequently, the Cu metal-patterned substrate was used to produce pillar patterns of SU-8 with a high aspect ratio using photolithography. Finally, the gaps between the SU-8 pillar patterns were filled with nickel through electroplating, completing the partition component. The micro-wells in the partition component were designed to have an aspect ratio of 4-5; however, in this study, micro-wells with an aspect ratio of 2 and a depth of 200 μm were fabricated.

Freeform surfaces are widely used in various industries. However, they require much time to be machined because of complicated geometry. To increase machining productivity, partitioning methods for freeform surface have been proposed by several previous studies regarding selection of cutting tools and tool-path. This paper proposes a new partitioning method based on Gaussian and mean curvatures to define boundaries of local patches using Freeman algorithm. Simulation results with a B-Spline surface show that the proposed method combined with cutting tool selection strategies can reduce machining time and surface roughness when compared with the non-partitioned method.