A wafer-scale manufacturing process for producing a modular active surface device, comprising the steps of: (a) providing an active surface material-filled substrate comprising active surface material microposts of the micropost active surface layer embedded in the substrate; (b) forming an active surface wafer by bonding the active surface material-side of the active surface material-filled substrate to a second substrate using a plasma bonding process; (c) forming a plurality of through-holes in the active surface wafer to form a cut active surface wafer; (d) releasing the microposts of the cut active surface wafer to form a released active surface wafer; (e) providing a mask layer and installing the mask layer atop the released active surface wafer to form a masked active surface wafer; (f) sealing both sides of the masked active surface wafer to produce a masked and sealed active surface wafer; and (g) dicing the masked and sealed active surface wafer into multiple individual modular active surface devices; wherein each of the modular active surface devices comprises: a first active surface atop a first active surface substrate; at least one reaction chamber comprising fluid ports, wherein the fluid ports comprise one or more input ports and one or more output ports; and one or more additional layers selected from the group consisting of one or more adhesive layers, one or more stiffening layers for facilitating handling, and one or more peel-off sealing layers; wherein the first active surface atop the first active surface substrate forms at least one surface of the reaction chamber; and further wherein the modular active surface device is configured to integrate into a microfluidics cartridge. (a) providing an active surface material-filled substrate comprising active surface material microposts of the micropost active surface layer embedded in the substrate; (b) forming an active surface wafer by bonding the active surface material-side of the active surface material-filled substrate to a second substrate using a plasma bonding process; (c) forming a plurality of through-holes in the active surface wafer to form a cut active surface wafer; (d) releasing the microposts of the cut active surface wafer to form a released active surface wafer; (e) providing a mask layer and installing the mask layer atop the released active surface wafer to form a masked active surface wafer; (f) sealing both sides of the masked active surface wafer to produce a masked and sealed active surface wafer; and (g) dicing the masked and sealed active surface wafer into multiple individual modular active surface devices; a first active surface atop a first active surface substrate; at least one reaction chamber comprising fluid ports, wherein the fluid ports comprise one or more input ports and one or more output ports; and one or more additional layers selected from the group consisting of one or more adhesive layers, one or more stiffening layers for facilitating handling, and one or more peel-off sealing layers; wherein the first active surface atop the first active surface substrate forms at least one surface of the reaction chamber; and further wherein the modular active surface device is configured to integrate into a microfluidics cartridge.