Wafer-Level Microchannel Fabrication Process for Lab-on-a-Chip Devices

Microchannels fabricated into a silicon-Pyrex wafer with a diameter of 75 m and total channel length of 40, 60, 80, or 100 mm — characterized by specialized microbeads within the channel — have been successfully created, tested, and used at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Designed to collect and separate amino acids towards finding the building blocks of life on other planets, this technology could be essential to many other lab-on-a-chip or microfluidic applications.