A Hermetic Thick Film Screen-Printed Ceramic Cavity for Harsh Environment Sensing Applications

In this work, a ceramic thick film cavity with screen-printed diaphragm has been designed, fabricated, and fully characterized as the foundation for harsh environment pressure microsensing applications. A new thick film screen-printing technique has been developed as a method for creating the ceramic microstructure. The screen-printed diaphragm was fabricated over a thick film sacrificial layer which was subsequently removed to form the cavity. Hermeticity characterization of the cavity after exposures to elevated temperatures was performed to assess the microstructure´s feasibility for harsh environment sensing applications. The ceramic cavity showed excellent hermeticity with a maximum leak rate of 7.0 times 10^-10 atm cc/s He after exposures to temperatures up to 500degC.