  We demonstrate the possibility of trapping about one hundred million rubidium
atoms in a magneto-optical trap with several of the beams passing through a
transparent atom chip mounted on a vacuum cell wall. The chip is made of a gold
microcircuit deposited on a silicon carbide substrate, with favorable thermal
conductivity. We show how a retro-reflected configuration can efficiently
address the chip birefringence issues, allowing atom trapping at arbitrary
distances from the chip. We also demonstrate detection through the chip,
granting a large numerical aperture. This configuration is compared to other
atom chip devices, and some possible applications are discussed.
