CONTROLLED APPLICATION OF DIFFERENTIAL THERMAL EXPANSION IN THE DIFFUSION BONDING OF BULK MICROFLUIDIC DEVICES

摘要

Diffusion bonding has been widely used within microlamination architectures for the fabrication of bulk microfluidic devices. These devices are microsystems with the ability to process bulk amounts of fluid within highly-parallel arrays of microchannels capable of accelerated heat and mass transfer. Diffusion bonding of microchannel arrays is commonly done in batch within a vacuum hot press which is slow and expensive. This paper presents a novel fabrication approach for the high-volume diffusion bonding of Micro Energy and Chemical Systems (MECS) with the use of controlled thermal expansion. A thermal bonding fixture based on the principle of differential thermal expansion is developed focused on controlling the bonding pressure magnitude, the pressure timing and its sensitivity. The application of such a fixture within a pusher furnace could be the key to a continuous thermal bonding approach for the mass production of MECS devices.