A low-mass high-speed µGC separation column with built-in fluidic chip-to-chip interconnects

This paper reports a low-mass high-speed separation column with built in fluidic chip-to-chip interconnects for a micro gas chromatograph. The 25cm-long suspended column has been successfully coated, and separations have been obtained. The column can be heated to 100°C with 200mW in air and only 80mW in vacuum. The corresponding thermal time constants are 1.2sec and 2.5sec, respectively. Built-in heated interconnects eliminate cold-spots from long and difficult to heat capillary tubes, and plug directly into the preconcentrator and chemi-resistive detector chips, miniaturizing the fluidic analysis path to a size compatible with eventual use in devices such as cellular phones.