Development of novel low temperature bonding technologies for microchip chemical analysis applications

We introduce two new low temperature bonding technologies for the assembly of microstructured glass substrates for the realisation of microchannels fo r miniaturised chemical analysis applications. A first method consists of a proper cleaning of the two glass surfaces, followed by a simple epoxy glui ng process at 90 degrees C. In a second method, direct bonding is obtained just by exposing the glass stack to a high pressure (up to 50 MPa) in the 1 00-200 degrees C temperature range. We obtain bonding strengths as high as 10 MPa, higher than the best values obtained by HF-assisted or plasma-assis ted bonding. For the realisation of the microchannels, we introduce, beside s the well-known HF-etching technology, two simple alternative methods, nam ely, sawing and micropowder blasting. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All ri ghts reserved.