Wet Etching
Micronit applies wet etching (HF etching) techniques to create channel structures in glass. HF is a hydrofluoric acid, commonly used for cleaning metal and etching glass. For the HF etching technique we use masks which make the absolute positioning of the structures accurate within one micrometer. By using a mask, the amount of channels, reservoirs, mixing and reaction chambers is irrelevant for the costs of the process.
Isotropic etching
Wet etching of glass is an isotropic etching technique. This means that the width of the channels is more than twice the depth of it, and that the corners are rounded. The bottom of the channel stays smooth and optically transparent.
HF etching is an economical solution for fast, flexible, high quality prototyping and volume production (up to 50,000 wafers a year).
Possibilities
A lot of combinations with (other) etching techniques are possible, like double-sided HF etching or one-side powderblasting, one-side HF etching. Besides, it is possible to integrate electrodes in the chips, or to use silicon layers.