Wafer bonder

What it does

A wafer bonder joins two parts for good, without glue. The pair is aligned and clamped in a chamber where temperature, force, pressure and atmosphere follow a programmed recipe.

In anodic bonding, glass and silicon are heated and a high voltage is applied across them: ions in the glass move away from the interface and the glass seals chemically to the silicon. In thermo-compression bonding, two metal layers are pressed together while hot until they become one.

Neither method leaves an organic layer that would creep, outgas or change with temperature. We bond thin crystals onto substrates machined to a chosen curvature: once bonded, the crystal keeps that curvature and does not twist. Our SB8 Gen2 was upgraded in 2026 with Electron MEC.

What we use it for

• Bent crystals for LHC deflectors

  Crystals bonded to curved substrates for steering particle beams, in the CRYSTAL BOND project.

• X-ray lenses and analysers

  Bent-crystal elements for X-ray lenses and analysers, held at their curvature by the substrate.

Working with us

If you need two materials joined without glue, or a crystal held at a given curvature, describe the parts: we can plan bonding tests together.