A low temperature IC compatible process for fabricating surface micromachined metallic microchannels

In this paper we describe a method for surface fabrication of metallic microchannels. Arrays of five and seven microchannels have been fabricated using thick photoresist as a sacrificial layer. The microchannels are fabricated on a silicon and glass substrates using nickel as the structural material and gold as the coating of inside walls. Individual microchannels range from 30 μm to 1.5 mm in width, 500 μm to several mm in length, and 13 μm to 30 μm in thickness. The microchannel fabrication technology allows fabrication of relatively large cross sectional surface microchannels using a low temperature process that is compatible with integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technology as a post process