A variety of Glass Substrates for use in Biotechnology presented at BiOS

The international technology group and specialty glass expert Schott (UK) offers a broad portfolio of glass substrates with customised features for use in the growing field of life sciences, for instance, microfluidics and next-generation sequencing. The glass types D263 T eco, MEMPax, BOROFLOAT and B270i offer the customer a choice between different product characteristics and material thicknesses to best suit the needs of the individual applications. These products as well as NEXTERION substrates were on display at BiOS from 1 to 2 February.

Microfluidics is on its way to becoming a main stream enabling technology for fields as diverse as medical diagnostics, life science research or drug delivery and synthesis. There are many applications which rely on highly complex microfluidic chips, and these chips can only be produced from high quality substrates. In such cases, polymer-based chips fail to provide the required level of precision or sophistication and the costs of silicon chips are very high. Therefore, glass-based chips are ideally suited for applications which rely on chip complexity such as high density or integrated sensing functionalities at a competitive price level.

“Not only do we at Schott offer a portfolio of different well-known glass products for a maximum variety of uses, but we have also developed our own micro-structuring technology which allows us to apply structures under 100 microns in diameter to the glass substrates. We can process the borosilicate glass types D263 T eco, MEMPax and BOROFLOAT as well as the highly transparent ultra-white crown glass B 270 i,” said Andreas Haedrich, Sales Director EMEA for Schott Advanced Optics.

Schott now also offers its NEXTERION slides and wafers for biotech applications pre-scribed to the final format, allowing for the substrates to be processed first and then efficiently broken to size in the final step. This results in easier handling and cost reductions especially for high quantities. Microarray applications are the foundation of NEXTERION substrates, however, a diverse portfolio with customised solutions for life science and diagnostics complement the standard product range.