A NEW FABRICATION METHOD FOR BOROSILICATE GLASS-CAPILLARY TUBES WITH LATERAL INLETS AND OUTLETS

In this paper a new fabrication method for borosilicate glass capillar y tubes is presented. As the interest in miniaturized total chemical a nalysis systems (mu-TAS) is increasing, the need for fluidic paths is growing and thus the study of microchannels, microtubes and microcolum ns is an important topic of the microfluidic area. The capillary tubes presented here are fabricated by structuring and bonding three borosi licate glass wafers (7740 Coming Pyrex(R)). Microchannels with lateral inlets and outlets have been successfully realized and well-defined s ize and shape have been obtained. Several capillary tubes with widths from 340 to 940 mu m have been realized as well as different section s hapes, which can be circular, elliptic or quasi-rectangular. The main fabrication steps and first characterizations are reported.