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 our microfluidics and bonding lines already run every step of it. From a single wafer pair.
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 next door.
Strip the atomic physics away and a MEMS vapor cell is a bonded cavity with optical windows, exactly the structure our microfluidics and bonding lines produce every week.
Cell volumes, connecting channels, fill ports, and reservoir pockets are DRIE geometry: vertical walls at up to 50:1 aspect ratio, 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.
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.
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.
The exploded stack, the bonded unfilled body it becomes, and the four formats a program can order it in.
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.
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Body Material | Silicon, DRIE-etched; KOH profiles optional |
| Windows | Borosilicate standard; fused silica, sapphire per program |
| Cavity Geometry | Per drawing; DRIE to 50:1 aspect ratio; channels, ports, reservoirs |
| Wafer Sizes | 4 inch (100mm), 6 inch (150mm), 8 inch (200mm) |
| 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 |
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.
The original MEMS cell application: miniature cavities with buffer-gas-ready volumes and heater-patterned windows, on the flow CSAC programs standardized.
Nuclear-spin gyroscope and NMR-based sensor cells, where cavity symmetry and wall quality come straight from lithography rather than glassblowing.
Vapor cells for Rydberg-atom electrometry and RF sensing, with electrode-patterned windows placing fields exactly where the atoms are.
Miniature reference cells for laser stabilization and spectroscopy, batch-consistent so every instrument in a product line sees the same cell.
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.
Hundreds of clean, identical, well-bonded cavities is a fab problem, and it is the problem our microfluidics line solves routinely.
Bodies, unfilled. Your species, your buffer gas, your sealing physics stay yours, with filling arranged per program when wanted.
Etched wafers to diced cells on the same masks, so a program can enter anywhere and scale without redesign.
Heaters, electrodes, and apertures arrive already on the glass, through the optical access flow next door.
This segment ships real products, so the flow is built for repeat batches on fixed recipes, not just hero wafers.
Etch, bond, pattern, and dice under one thread, managed end to end by a dedicated project manager.
Share your process requirements, substrate, and production volume. A Nanosystems JP Inc. engineer will respond within 24 hours. Full quote typically within 7-10 business days, subject to project complexity and NDA requirements.