Patent ID: 8709702

Claim:
A method to fabricate a device with holes for electrical conduction comprising the steps of: preparing a photosensitive glass substrate comprising at least silica, lithium oxide, aluminum oxide, and cerium oxide; masking a design layout comprising one or more holes and one or more channels to form one or more electrical conduction paths on the photosensitive glass substrate and one or more etched features in the photosensitive glass substrate; exposing at least one portion of the photosensitive glass substrate to an activating energy source; exposing the photosensitive glass substrate to a heating phase of at least ten minutes at a temperature above its glass transition temperature of the photosensitive glass-ceramic substrate; cooling the photosensitive glass substrate to transform at least part of the exposed glass to a crystalline material to form a glass-crystalline ceramic substrate; exposing an outer surface to an etchant solution; etching the glass-crystalline ceramic substrate with the etchant solution to form one or more channels accessible from the outer surface and to form one or more holes through the glass-crystalline ceramic substrate for electrical conduction in the device, wherein the one or more etched features occur at different elevations on the material; and filling in the one or more holes with a coating material.