The Low-temperature Bonding Technology And Characterization Of Quartz Glass

Quartz, because of its fantastic physic and chemical qualities, has a broad rangeof applications. Microtubes in quartz cannot be processed by using conventionalmethods. It can only be obtained by connecting quartz plates on the current level oftechnology. Particularly, if the tubes are very complicated which needs to change itsshape, orientation or size along the tube, the traditional process cannot achievethese goals.Connecting quartz can be achieved by a variety of methods, such as traditionalglue method. However, in order to maintain the transmittance of the sample, directbonding technology is one of the best. Because it does not require any intermediatelayer material to aid the connection. If there is fine etched quartz surface structure,we do not need to worry about this method will damage the surface. For example,the production of capillary electrophoresis microchips which can be used inbiochemical sample analysis and separation needs the quartz connection technology.This study compared various types of bonding technology, such as bondingwith intermediate layer of sealing glass, plasma surface activation method, anodebonding method, hydrophobic surface and hydrophilic surface activation methods.In the end we found that the hydrophilic surface of the chemical solution activationmethod is the most suitable for our research project’s requirement. The relativelylow cost and easiness of the process and the perfect bonding strength are all whatwe expect of this study.As to the hydrophilic surface treatment, we investigated its bondingmechanisms, different effects of the bonding process method and various factorswhich can affect the quality of bonding. Proposed using Newton’s rings todetermine the initial bonding quality. We also used the results of transmittance ofthe sample to elucidate the relationship between bonding quality with bondingtemperature, annealing time, and bonding environment.We concluded that the best bonding strength we could get in this research isabove4MPa and it resulted from annealing the sample at250℃in8h and at thevacuum condition. What’s more, the bonding strength and the transmittance meetthe requirement of the device.