Fabrication of arrayed microwells with wrinkle microstructure by ink-jet and diamond-like carbon thin film deposition process

•Fabrication of arrayed microwells on PDMS substrates using ink-jet process was realized.•Microwells with wrinkle microstructures were fabricated by ink-jet and DLC deposition process.•The microwells showing the ability to form multicellular spheroids were obtained.•The fabrication process was expected to be used in PDMS-based microfluidic devices. Fabrication of microwells is an important technology to create and enhance the functions needed for the biological applications of microfluidic devices. In this paper, how to fabricate arrayed microwells on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrates handily using an ink-jet processing was presented. More, the microwells having wrinkle microstructures with several μm size on the surfaces were fabricated by a combination procedure of the ink-jet and diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin film deposition. The shapes of the microwells were hexagon and circle, and the sizes were in the ranges of 100–170 μm in diagonal or diameter and 3–30 μm in depth. To investigate the effect of the microwells on cellular behaviors, mouse myoblast cells were cultured on the PDMS substrates. The results demonstrated that the microwells with wrinkle microstructures had the ability to form spherically shaped cell aggregates of around 100 μm size, which were considered to be multicellular spheroids.