Patent ID: 8021961

Claim:
A process of fabricating multiple microfluidic device chips, the process comprising: fabricating a plurality of micromachined tubes in a device wafer formed of a semiconductor material, the micromachined tubes being fabricated so that each micromachined tube has an internal fluidic passage and an inlet and outlet thereto defined in a surface of the device wafer; bonding the surface of the device wafer to a first surface of a second wafer to form a device wafer stack and so that a plurality of through-holes in the second wafer are individually fluidically coupled with the inlets and the outlets of the micromachined tubes and define a plurality of openings at a second surface of the second wafer; bonding the second surface of the second wafer to a first surface of a metallic wafer to form a package wafer stack so that a plurality of through-holes in the metallic wafer are individually fluidically coupled with the through-holes of the second wafer and define a plurality of ports at a second surface of the metallic wafer, wherein the step of bonding the second wafer to the metallic wafer comprises depositing a bonding material on the first surface of the metallic wafer prior to bonding the second wafer to the metallic wafer, and the second and metallic wafers are bonded to each other with the bonding material; singulating multiple microfluidic device chips from the package wafer stack, each of the multiple microfluidic device chips comprising a package substrate formed by a singulated portion of the metallic wafer, a singulated portion of the second wafer, a singulated portion of the device wafer, one of the micromachined tubes, a package inlet and a package outlet port defined by a pair of the ports at the second surface of the metallic wafer, and a continuous flow path between the package inlet and outlet thereof and defined by, in series, one of the plurality of through-holes in the metallic wafer, one of the plurality of through-holes in the second wafer, the inlet, the passage and the outlet of the micromachined tube, a second of the plurality of through-holes in the second wafer, and a second of the through-holes of the metallic wafer.