Applications of fully sintered fused glass devices. Image credit: Dr. Jingqin Mao, Dr. Yahya Atwa and Dr Sabitha Ann Jose.
Fused silica glass could soon be manufactured with the flexibility of a polymer, opening the door to a new generation of miniature devices for sensing, healthcare and precision engineering, according to researchers speaking at today's QAMSS lecture series.
Delivering the latest lecture, Dr. Hamza Shakeel of Queen's University Belfast described how a new fabrication approach overcomes many of the longstanding barriers that have prevented one of engineering's highest-performing materials from being used more widely in microfabrication. The technique allows complex three-dimensional fused silica structures to be created at room temperature before being converted into dense, transparent glass through thermal processing.
"We can create intricate 3D geometries with resolutions on the order of tens of microns, with initial steps beginning at room temperature followed by final steps performed at 1300 °C," Dr. Shakeel explained. "Conventional methods for shaping fused silica, such as glass blowing and moulding, require processing at temperatures above 1600 °C."
The breakthrough effectively allows researchers to shape fused silica much like a polymer while retaining the exceptional properties that have made the material so attractive for demanding applications.
Polymer processing unlocks new possibilities
During the lecture, Dr. Shakeel outlined how the manufacturing route could make high-performance fused silica components more accessible for a range of technologies.
"Several applications can benefit from this approach, including optics, mechanical resonators and microfluidic devices," he said, highlighting opportunities to produce optical elements, compact chemical sensors and precision mechanical components using a simpler and potentially more scalable fabrication process.
Fused silica has long been regarded as an ideal engineering material thanks to its unique combination of properties, but manufacturing limitations have restricted its broader adoption.
"Fused silica glass is an important high-performance material for packaging, microfluidics and inertial sensing applications due to its extremely low coefficient of thermal expansion, excellent thermal, chemical and mechanical stability and outstanding optical transparency," Dr. Shakeel said.
Those characteristics make it particularly attractive for devices that must operate reliably in demanding environments while maintaining exceptional precision.
Tackling the remaining manufacturing challenges
While the research marks a significant advance, Dr. Shakeel also highlighted the engineering challenges that still need to be overcome before the process reaches its full potential.
"Two main challenges remain for our method: the formation of microbubbles and surface roughness on the order of hundreds of nanometres," he explained.
Encouragingly, progress is already being made.
"We have demonstrated that post-processing of sintered glass can significantly reduce surface roughness, and we are currently exploring the use of vacuum furnaces during the sintering step to minimise bubble formation."
The lecture showcased how combining polymer-like manufacturing techniques with the performance of fused silica glass could enable a new generation of robust, compact and scalable devices. With applications spanning microfluidics, advanced packaging, optical systems and high-Q mechanical resonators, the research points towards manufacturing methods that could help bring high-performance glass components into a much wider range of scientific and industrial technologies.
About the interviewee
Image credit: TJ Cosgrove
Dr. Hamza Shakee is a reader at the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB). He holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech, USA (2015), where he specialised in micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology based chemical sensors. After completing his doctoral studies, Dr. Shakeel went on to work as a post-doctoral associate at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA (2017), where he focused on utilising MEMS oscillators for metrology applications. His research expertise encompasses the development of sensors/sensing platforms for inertial, environmental and biomedical applications.
He has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and holds a US patent related to chemical sensors. His projects have received a total funding over £10M. He is currently associate editor of IEEE Sensors Letters and previously served as associate editor of Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering Journal. He is also leading the eFutures Network plus project and made contributions to the UK’s Academic Semiconductor Landscape report.
By Dr Karen Steward