Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.46, No.25, 8306-8318, 2007
Integrated microreactor system for gas-phase catalytic reactions. 2. Microreactor packaging and testing
An integrated packaging system is developed for the multilayer laminate gas-phase microreactor die whose design and fabrication was described in Part 1 of this series. A commercial plastic socket used for integrated circuit testing was adapted so the reactor chip could be easily installed while maintaining consistent alignment with all electrical contacts. A heated fluidics interface was developed that connects the nonmetallic feed and product gas ports on the microreactor chip to metal tubing. Thermal experiments and 3-D finite-element heat transfer simulations of the combined socket-fluidics assembly showed that the plastic reactor socket could be safely operated up to 250 degrees C. Other tests showed that the microreactor heaters were capable of achieving membrane temperatures in excess of 600 degrees C. Step-response tests demonstrated that temperature changes of ca. 100 degrees C could be achieved in less than 10 ms. Testing of the electrical leads on the reactor chip verified that the device resistance on a single reactor chip was uniform within a few percentage points. The packaged system developed here is used in Part 3 of this series to create a modular reactor board for incorporation into an integrated process system.