Micromachining technologies for capillary electrophoresis utilizing Pyrex glass etching and bonding

This paper presents the results about glass wet-etching and glass-to-glass bonding research for micro Capillary Electrophoresis and some other bio MEMS applications. Common glass and Pyrex glass had been chosen for the etching experiments with the HF-based series of etchants. Using negative photoresist, Shipley, together with the Au/Cr composite films as the masks, the etching rate of the glass in different concentration etchants had been investigated. Very fast etching rate, approximately 0.8micrometers /min, can be obtained. The mask we developed can stand more than 2 hours HF etching and very good glass surface had been obtained. The experimental results also had shown that there exist a big difference in etching rate between the common and Pyrex glass. Using anodic-like bonding skill, glass-to-glass mates with large area are realized with PECVD amorphous-Si as the intermediate layer. Micro Capillary Electrophoresis system had been developed by this technique and the test is still in progress. All these techniques also can be employed bio- MEMS chip in the future.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.