X-FAB Silicon Foundries announced this week that it has taken steps to simplify the integration of microfluidic elements with CMOS and SOI die. As part of the company's MEMS-oriented technology offering, X-FAB is now able to provide a larger variety of process capabilities for silicon based microfluidic systems. X-FAB has been focused on a more standardized foundry approach, to remove barriers to market entry and shorten development cycles. X-FAB has made $25 million worth of investment in the area of microfluidics in the past 5 years, while taking on numerous projects for medical and industrial clients for applications such as lab-on-a-chip, DNA sequencing and synthesis, and cancer diagnostics. Through these projects, X-FAB has expanded its expertise in areas like noble metal processing, high aspect-ratio deep reactive ion-etching (DRIE), and the deposition of both organic and inorganic materials. X-FAB says it also has become adept at tailoring the interfaces needed to connect CMOS die and the accompanying microfluidics elements, so the exact application requirements can be met.
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 says it 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.
"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," states Volker Herbig, VP of X-FAB's MEMS business unit. "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."
X-FAB is one of the leading analog/mixed-signal and MEMS foundries worldwide. The company's modular CMOS and SOI processes include geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13 μm, as well as SiC and MEMS processes. X-FAB has six production facilities in Germany, France, Malaysia, and the US. X-FAB employs approximately 3,800 people worldwide. To outline the full scope of its microfluidics capabilities, X-FAB will be hosting a webinar on May 27th and 28th (https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/9165593107712875534).
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