X-FAB expands offering for silicon-based microfluidics

Combined with a highly standardized foundry approach, this will help to remove barriers to market entry and shorten development cycles.

To outline the full scope of its microfluidics capabilities, X-FAB will be hosting an informative webinar on the 27th and 28th May. Click here to register.

Using all this expertise as a foundation, the company has extended its process capabilities to now include:

• Noble metal electrode arrays
• Inorganic layers for surface passivation and protection
• Deep silicon trenches and cavities
• Bonded silicon or glass lid wafers
• Polymeric fluidic structures

The company is continuously expanding its portfolio of standard process blocks covering these capabilities. Rather than beginning complex microsystem design projects from scratch, it will be possible to re-use existing process IP, and thereby get a head-start. This will help to accelerate product development cycles, as well as facilitating the scale up to volume production. Among the multitude of new opportunities envisaged are development of MEMS solutions for drug administering, flow metering and pollution monitoring.

Volker Herbig, VP of X-FAB’s MEMS business unit, said: “We are seeing a growing number of requests to implement silicon-based microfluidics. As a consequence, our engineering team is striving to bring two worlds together; so that medical OEMs' deep understanding of physiology and fluid analysis can be combined with X-FAB’s knowledge of high-volume semiconductor manufacturing technologies.

“We are excited to help our medical customers in developing their smart integrated microfluidic systems via the multitude of new process capabilities we can now offer.”