Failure mechanisms of pressurized microchannels, model and experiments

Microchannels were created by fusion bonding of a Pyrex and a thermally oxidized silicon wafer. The maximum pressure which can be applied to these channels was investigated. In order to find the relation between this maximum pressure, channel geometry, material elasticity and bond energy, an energy model was developed. It was shown that the model is substantiated by the pressure data, from which it could be calculated that the effective bond energy increased from 0.018 J/m/sup 2/ to 0.19 J/m/sup 2/ for an annealing temperature ranging from 310/spl deg/C to 470/spl deg/C.