Fabrication of Ultra-Thin Glass Sheet for On-Chip Glass Pressure Sensor

Abstract

Glass is a common material used in various microsystems including sensors, actuators, and microfluidic devices due to its extraordinary properties. Compared with traditional glass, ultra-thin glass sheet (UTGS) is not only flexible but also elastic and is more easily deformed under low pressure than normal thick glass materials. In this paper, an efficient and convenient fabrication method for the UTGS is designed. First, an independent UTGS ( <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\leq 3\ \mu \mathrm{m}$</tex> , the world's thinnest) is fabricated by utilizing a weight-controlled load-assisted (WCL-assisted) thermal stretching. Then an UTGS-based strain gauge sensor is fabricated to verify the flexible and elastic performance of the fabricated UTGS. The high sensitivity of the UTGS-based strain gauge sensor under low pressure (100 mbar) makes this sensor suitable for low-pressure measurement in microsystems.