Microreactors packaging

The heart of the system is a microreactor packaging scheme that is based upon a commercially available microchip socket. This approach allows the silicon-based reactor die, which contains dual parallel reaction channels with more than 100 electrical contacts, to be installed and removed in a straightforward fashion without removing any fluidic and electronic connections. Various supporting microreactor functions, such as gas feed flow control, gas feed mixing, and various temperature control systems, are mounted on standard CompactPCI electronic boards. The boards are subsequently installed in a commercially available computer chassis. Electrical connections between the boards are achieved through a standard backplane and custom-built input-output PC boards. A National Instruments embedded real-time processor is used to provide closed-loop process control and... 

Previous microreactor packing schemes developed at both MIT and DuPont could not be used since the electrical and fluidic interfaces required significant effort to implement. The microreactor packaging problem was eventually solved by using the DieMate Known Good Die (KGD) socket manufactured by Texas Instruments (Texas Instruments Incorporated, 34 Forest Street, P.O. Box 2964, Attleboro, MA). 

Figure 12.1 shows photographs of the Texas Instruments DieMate Known Good Die socket used for the final microreactor packaging scheme. The particular DieMate socket chosen for the microreactor scale-up system was the 110-pin version (Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX, P/N GBGllO 004 K) since this could accommodate the required sensors. 

Fig. 12.1 Texas Instruments DieMate Known Good Die socket used for microreactor packaging in the scale-up system.

To build an efficient and compact microreactor, the fabrication technique must allow for three-dimensional structures and the use of the appropriate materials, and the technique should be low cost. Since reactants and products must flow in and out of the device, traditional standard thin film techniques are not suitable for the reactor framework. However, thin film techniques are very useful for integration, surface preparation, sensor integration, and finishing or packaging. Fortunately, traditional thin film techniques can be modified for microreactor fabrication other techniques, which will be discussed below, are also available. 

At the beginning of microreactor research, many papers focused on establishing suitable micro fabrication and assembly techniques and having system integration, following the success stories of MEMS fabrication and packaging [15]. The main... 

Existing reactor modeling packages were not predictive of microreactors... 

The microreactor design was constrained by the requirement that all electrical and fluidic connections between the microreactor and other system components be implemented using so-called packaging methods that were easy-to-use while maintaining process robustness. The microreactor and any supporting components had to be heated so they could safely operate above the dew points of the feed and product stream compositions, thereby preventing any product condensation from the gas-phase. For these reasons, a simplihed methodology was required that facilitated microreactor removal and replacement. 

An application package for the analysis of kinetic data from microreactors ... 

Customer-based production of formulations (besides emulsions) based on a package system with an incorporated static micromixer [19] Microencapsulation in microreactors (e.g. flavors, enzymes) [25-28] Analytical devices - odor sensing. [35, 36]... 

Figure 27.10 A photograph of (a) the 2.4 We micro fuel processor developed by Casio Computer and (b) vacuum package enclosing the microreactor.

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