Silicon-Quartz Microcapillary Opto-Fluidic Platform Obtained by CMOS-Compatible Die to Wafer 200 mm Dual Bonding Process

A composite, capillary-driven microfluidic system suitable for transmitted light microscopy of cells (e.g., red and white human blood cells) is fabricated and demonstrated. The microfluidic system consists of a microchannels network fabricated in a photo-patternable adhesive polymer on a quartz substrate, which, by means of adhesive bonding, is then connected to a silicon microfluidic die (for processing of the biological sample) and quartz die (to form the imaging chamber). The entire bonding process makes use of a very low temperature budget (200 °C). In this demonstrator, the silicon die consists of microfluidic channels with transition structures to allow conveyance of fluid utilizing capillary forces from the polymer channels to the silicon channels and back to the polymer channels. Compared to existing devices, this fully integrated platform combines on the same substrate silicon microfluidic capabilities with optical system analysis, representing a portable and versatile lab-on-chip device.