Thin film metal sensors in fusion bonded glass chips for high-pressure microfluidics

High-pressure microfluidics offers fast analyses of thermodynamic parameters for compressed process solvents. However, microfluidic platforms handling highly compressible supercritical CO2 are difficult to control, and on-chip sensing would offer added control of the devices. Therefore, there is a need to integrate sensors into highly pressure tolerant glass chips. In this paper, thin film Pt sensors were embedded in shallow etched trenches in a glass wafer that was bonded with another glass wafer having microfluidic channels. The devices having sensors integrated into the flow channels sustained pressures up to 220 bar, typical for the operation of supercritical CO2. No leakage from the devices could be found. Integrated temperature sensors were capable of measuring local decompression cooling effects and integrated calorimetric sensors measured flow velocities over the range 0.5-13.8 mm/s. By this, a better control of high-pressure microfluidic platforms has been achieved. Part financed through Swedish Agency for the Innovation System, Vinnova, through the Centre for Natural Disaster Science (CNDS)