Rigid Materials for Microsystems

Microsystems can be built on various substrates with a range of materials crystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, glass, quartz, metals, and organic polymers. Single-crystal silicon substrates have been used in most areas of microfabrication for a range of excellent reasons  

Two- and three-dimensional shapes and patterns can be reproduced in silicon with high precision using bulk and surface micromachining techniques [46,54] 

Silicon devices can be batch-fabricated using the technology currently used for fabricating integrated circuits. 

Silicon/silicon dioxide is stable chemically and thermally. 

Integration of various components of a miniaturized device requires methods for bonding materials to substrates [64]. The most commonly used technologies for joining glass and silicon components include  

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