Glass Wafer Processing

Wafers, made of glass, are the basis of the modern micro system technology. Glass has many advantages as a material such as high chemical and heat resistance, high electrical isolation, biocompatibility, large optical transition range as well as low optical absorption. Due to these properties, glass wafers are widely used in conventional microfabrication processes. Especially in the industrial and automotive electronics, glass wafers facilitate working with pressure sensor dies. And RENA has the perfect solution of glass wafer processing and glass etching for you!

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RENA glass processing

Microfabrication process allows the creation of diverse structures in a glass wafer. To achieve good quality in a structuring process, initial cleaning process is of crucial importance in processing glass wafer. RENA offers a wide range of glass wafer fabrication and glass etching: Diverse cleaning procedures in a batch adapted to needs of customer, degree and type of contamination, glass type and corresponding following application.

Process steps such as chrome etching can be integrated in a process sequence for structuring of a chrome layer. RENA also offers equipment for etching of commonly used metals in a fabrication process, such as gold and nickel. Depending on the customers’ needs, RENA processing tools for glass wafers can also contain baths for glass etching and resist stripping.

The individual processing steps of glass wafers can be freely adjusted to the required throughput and specific customer needs:

Glass cleaning
Glass etching
Metal etching / Chrome etching
Resist stripping

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Applications

Optics

Thousands of micro-optics components can be fabricated in parallel on a glass wafer using microfabrication process. Optical components such as lenses, mirrors, beam splitters and gratings can mostly be used in photonics, the semiconductor industry, or the medical field. Refractive and diffractive micro-optical elements are used for precise beam shaping. Micro-optics also play an important role in medical devices such as endoscopes, as well as laser-based devices and fiber communication networks.

Microfluidics

Many microfluidic systems are fabricated out of glass with microfabrication process. Microfluidic systems have become essential elements for biomedical instrumentation for diagnostics. Being transparent under a wide wavelength range, glass is the first candidate for micro bioanalytical devices such as microcapillary electrophoresis or devices for cell trapping or sorting. Microfluidic systems with sophisticated channel structure find their applications in devices for point of need testing (PON), and flow cells for single molecule handling of DNA for next generation sequencing (NGS).

Sensors

The technology for the microfabrication of glass is gaining in importance because more and more glass substrates are currently being used to fabricate MEMS devices. Today it is already implemented as a mature solution, such as acceleration and pressure sensors. Patterned wafers with cavities which can be obtained through etching are used to encapsulate the pressure sensor die. The encapsulation is done by using a wafer level packaging (WLP) approach.

Glass cleaning and etching equipment

Our Revolution Wet Processing System is a highly configurable multi-step wet bench for processing glass wafers. For many complex applications, it is the most ideal, low-cost solution for processes that require a multistep sequence. It can be configured for either semi-auto or full-auto applications. Our Revolution Wet Processing System offers up to 5 processing tanks located around its central rotary robot and provides field-proven, dry-to-dry Genesis technology. As with all RENA equipment, the glass wafer processing platform footprint is always a priority and kept minimal.

Revolution

Multi-Step Sequences
Acid & Solvent Solutions
Up to 5 Processing Tanks
100-200mm wafers
Small footprint

Looking at the Revolution Wet Processing System as a processing equipment for glass wafer with robust integrated rotary robot, customizable process tank configurations, and unique options, we create a powerful, versatile tool system that provides a reliable solution to every challenge like glass cleaning and glass etching. Etching can prepare the glass wafer to encapsulate a pressure sensor die, among other things.

If the solution to your glass wafer challenge requires more processing steps integrated, or you are looking for a lab scaled solution, please explore our products. We have the right solution for processing glass wafers and glass etching for you!

Evolution Advancer

Customized Solutions: Wet processing systems

Looking back at over 20 years of expertise in cleaning applications for various substrates, RENA offers advanced processing solutions for glass wafers like glass etching for diverse industries and challenging environments. With us you will find customized solutions to implement optical components, microfluid processes and sensors, such as a pressure sensor, in the best possible way.

Our glass wafer batch processing and glass etching tools deliver the highest performance for the Glass, MedTech, Pharma, Advanced Optics and Semiconductor sectors. They fulfill cleanroom, ATEX and GMP requirements and are designed for water as well as organic solvent-based processes.