EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that it has delivered an EVG®6200 semi-automated mask alignment system to Micronit, a manufacturer of lab-on-a-chip products used in life sciences applications, such as molecular diagnostics and point-of-care, as well as micro-processed glass substrates for MEMS applications.
The EVG6200 system has been installed at Micronit's production facility in Enschede, The Netherlands, where it is providing direct fusion bonding, photolithography and nanoimprint lithography (NIL) processing in the production of microfluidics and other glass-based MEMS devices.
"At Micronit, we are continuously improving our processes to reduce the cost of manufacturing and increase the capabilities of our products, which is why we are now incorporating wafer-scale NIL into our production flow. Also, the possibility of working on 200-mm glass substrates for MEMS applications is a good addition to our capabilities," according to Micha Mulder, managing director at Micronit. "In considering which vendor to work with, we received positive feedback about EV Group's NIL process from other companies both within and outside of the MEMS industry. In addition, their reputation for excellent service and support, production-ready product capabilities, and ability to customize their tools to support our proprietary glass manufacturing process, were all important factors in our decision to purchase their equipment for supporting our product development and manufacturing efforts."
"The market for microfluidics is projected to grow from $1.4 billion in 2013 to $5.7 billion by 2018-a compound annual growth rate of 27 percent-fuelled mainly by pharmaceutical research and point-of-care applications. Companies like EV Group play an important role in driving the development of new process technologies that are essential for enabling the rapid acceleration in growth within the microfluidics market," said Dr. Benjamin Roussel, technology and market analyst at Yole Développement. To enable the continued reduction in microfluidic device costs and increase in on-chip functionality, new manufacturing solutions are needed. Among these are the adoption of NIL to pattern smaller structures on the devices to enable a wider range of biomedical applications, and high-productivity wafer bonding to enclose the microfluidic channels within the device during the fabrication process.
The EVG6200 is a highly flexible platform that combines EVG's production-ready NIL technology with its industry-leading wafer bonding and photolithography capabilities in a single product-enabling an unmatched combination of scalability and low cost of ownership. It can accommodate wafers up to 200-mm in diameter with various shapes and thicknesses, including all standard formats used for medical and biotechnology applications.
"EV Group is committed to supporting the medical and biotechnology markets with our Triple-i approach of 'invent, innovate and implement'. These markets provide ideal opportunities to apply our expertise in developing innovative technologies and processes, such as NIL, to help microfluidic device manufacturers quickly scale up from R&D to production," stated Dr. Thorsten Matthias, business development director at EV Group. "Our work within the 4th Microfluidics (MF-4) Consortium and other groups involving key players across the microfluidic ecosystem such as Micronit is testament to our support for this vibrant, emergent market."