MEMS Vapor Cells
Wafer-Level Alkali Cell Bodies
At Nanosystems JP Inc., we fabricate the silicon-and-glass bodies of MEMS alkali vapor cells: DRIE cavities etched in silicon, anodic or adhesive bonding to glass windows, patterned apertures and electrodes where the design calls for them, delivered as open halves or bonded, unfilled cell bodies with fill ports and getter features per your layout. Alkali filling and final sealing stay at your line or are arranged per program. This is the flow behind OPM magnetometers and chip-scale atomic clocks, the quantum segment closest to real volume, and every step of it is an established microfluidics and bonding process. From a single wafer pair.
cavity walls and ports
double-side bonded stacks
batch economics built in
prototype to volume path
We build the bodies; the alkali stays your call
Alkali filling and final hermetic sealing are the physics-team steps, tied to your species, buffer gas, and sealing method. What stalls those teams is everything before: hundreds of identical, clean, well-bonded cavities. That is wafer fabrication, and it is what this page sells. Filling and getter material integration can be arranged per program; the windows and apertures come from the companion optical access service.
A vapor cell is a MEMS part
wearing physics clothing
Strip the atomic physics away and a MEMS vapor cell is a bonded cavity with optical windows, exactly the structure the microfluidics and bonding services produce for other programs.
Cavities Are Etching
Cell volumes, connecting channels, fill ports, and reservoir pockets are DRIE geometry: vertical walls at aspect ratios up to ~50:1 for suitable geometries, dimensions set by lithography, hundreds of identical cavities per wafer. Wet KOH profiles are available where sloped walls serve the optical path, and every cavity lands within lithographic tolerance of its neighbors.
Cells Are Bonding
Glass window to silicon body to glass window: the canonical cell is two bonds, and both live on our bonding service. Anodic bonding for the classic borosilicate-to-Si hermetic joint, adhesive bonding where temperature or stack demands it, eutectic frames where a metal seal is specified, with wafer pairs aligned so every cell's windows and cavity agree.
Function Is Patterning
Heaters, field electrodes, apertures, and opaque masks pattern onto the windows before bonding, through the optical access flow, and getter pockets, fill channels, and breakable seals appear in the silicon per your layout. The body arrives with its functions built in, so what remains at your line is the physics: fill, seal, characterize.
Anatomy of a cell body
The exploded stack, the bonded unfilled body it becomes, and the four formats a program can order it in.
Open halves, bonded bodies,
and the steps between
Programs enter this flow at different points. All four formats below are standard deliverables, on the same recipe, so moving from one to the next is a purchase order, not a redesign.
Complete vapor cell body
parameters
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Body Material | Silicon, DRIE-etched; KOH profiles optional |
| Windows | Borosilicate standard; fused silica, sapphire per program |
| Cavity Geometry | Per drawing; DRIE aspect ratios up to ~50:1 for suitable geometries; channels, ports, reservoirs |
| Wafer Sizes | 4 to 12 inch (100 to 300 mm) |
| Bonding | Anodic, adhesive, eutectic; single- or double-side stacks |
| Window Functions | Heaters, electrodes, apertures, opaque masks; patterned before bond |
| Fill Provisions | Fill ports, channels, getter pockets per layout; delivered unfilled |
| Filling & Sealing | At your line, or arranged per program |
| Formats | Etched wafers, open halves, bonded unfilled bodies, diced cells |
| Inspection | Cavity metrology and bond inspection standard; more on request |
| Minimum Lot | From 1 wafer pair; same recipe to volume batches |
The cell-shaped corner
of quantum sensing
OPM Magnetometers
Cell bodies for optically pumped magnetometers, biomagnetic imaging to geophysics, where per-channel cell count makes wafer-level batch fabrication the only economics that work.
Chip-Scale Atomic Clocks
The original MEMS cell application: miniature cavities with buffer-gas-ready volumes and heater-patterned windows, on the flow CSAC programs standardized.
Gyroscopes & NMR Cells
Nuclear-spin gyroscope and NMR-based sensor cells, where cavity symmetry and wall quality come straight from lithography rather than glassblowing.
Rydberg & RF Sensing
Vapor cells for Rydberg-atom electrometry and RF sensing, with electrode-patterned windows placing fields exactly where the atoms are.
Spectroscopy References
Miniature reference cells for laser stabilization and spectroscopy, batch-consistent so every instrument in a product line sees the same cell.
Research Cell Programs
Single wafer pairs for cell development: cavity splits, port variants, and window options across one wafer, so a semester of glasswork becomes one fab run.
What makes our vapor cell capability
different
The unglamorous part, mastered
Hundreds of clean, identical, well-bonded cavities is a wafer-fabrication problem, and it is the problem the microfluidics service solves routinely.
Honest scope
Bodies, unfilled. Your species, your buffer gas, your sealing physics stay yours, with filling arranged per program when wanted.
Four formats, one recipe
Etched wafers to diced cells on the same masks, so a program can enter anywhere and scale without redesign.
Windows with functions
Heaters, electrodes, and apertures arrive already on the glass, through the companion optical access service.
Nearest-to-volume thinking
This segment ships real products, so the flow is built for repeat batches on fixed recipes, not just hero wafers.
One program, one manager
Etch, bond, pattern, and dice under one thread, managed end to end by a dedicated project manager.
Start your project.
Initial response typically within one business day.
Share your process requirements, substrate, and production volume. A Nanosystems JP Inc. engineer will give an initial response typically within one business day. Full quote typically within 7-10 business days, subject to project complexity and NDA requirements.