Glass substrate with fine hole and method for producing the same

• US 20030150839A1
• Filed: 02/05/2003
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nippon Sheet Glass Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nippon Sheet Glass Company Limited
• Inventors: Shimmo, Katsuhide, Kobayashi, Fumitoshi, Hikichi, Naoko
• Application Number:
  US10/358,209
• Publication Number:
  US 20030150839A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 216/97
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 15/00 Surface treatment of glass, not in the form of fibres or filaments, by etching etching or surface-brightening compositions, in general C09K13/00
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 19/00 Surface treatment of glass, not in the form of fibres or filaments, by mechanical means sand-blasting, grinding, or polishing glass B24
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 23/0025 by a laser beam
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/3644 the coupling means being through-holes or wall apertures
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/3652 the additional structures being prepositioning mounting areas, allowing only movement in one dimension, e.g. grooves, trenches or vias in the microbench surface, i.e. self aligning supporting carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/3692 with surface micromachining involving etching, e.g. wet or dry etching steps surface micromachining involving subtractive techniques B81C1/00055
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4204 the coupling comprising intermediate optical elements, e.g. lenses, holograms encapsulated active devices H01S5/02208, H01L33/52
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4249 comprising arrays of active devices and fibres
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/24273 including aperture

Abstract

As a feature of a glass substrate having at least one fine hole according to the invention, a side wall surface of the fine hole is connected to each surface of the glass substrate by a curved surface as a boundary portion between the two. As another feature of the glass substrate, a layer denatured by machining is removed from the inner wall surface of the fine hole and the boundary portion between the wall surface and each surface of the glass substrate. The fine hole is produced by: forming a fine hole in a glass substrate by machining or laser machining; and then applying liquid-phase chemical etching to surfaces of the glass substrate and the fine hole. On this occasion, it is desirable that the etching liquid used for the liquid-phase chemical etching is either of an aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid and an aqueous mixture solution of hydrofluoric acid and ammonium fluoride.

Claims

1. A glass substrate having at least one fine hole, wherein a side wall surface of the fine hole is connected to a surface of the glass substrate by a curved surface.

2. The glass substrate according to claim 1, wherein a layer denatured by machining is removed from the side wall surface of the fine hole and a connection portion between the side wall surface of the fine hole and the surface of the glass substrate.

3. The glass substrate according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the fine hole has a diameter tapered off in a direction of thickness of the glass substrate.

4. A method of producing a glass substrate having at least one fine hole, comprising the steps of:

forming the at least one fine hole in the glass substrate by at least one of mechanical machining and laser machining; and

applying liquid-phase chemical etching to surfaces of the glass substrate and the fine hole.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein an etching liquid used for the liquid-phase chemical etching is one of an aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid and an aqueous mixture solution of hydrofluoric acid and ammonium fluoride.

6. A glass substrate produced by a method comprising the steps of:

forming at least one fine hole in the glass substrate by at least one of mechanical machining and laser machining; and

applying liquid-phase chemical etching to surfaces of the glass substrate and the fine hole to define a curved surface at a boundary between the surface of the glass substrate and the surface of the fine hole.