A ceramic capacitive pressure microsensor with screen-printed diaphragm

Author

Sippola, C.B. ; Ahn, C.H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Cincinnati Univ., OH

fYear

2005

fDate

Oct. 30 2005-Nov. 3 2005

Abstract

In this work, a ceramic capacitive sealed gauge pressure sensor has been designed, fabricated, and fully characterized for harsh environment pressure microsensor applications. Thick film screen printing has been expanded as a method for creating ceramic microstructures. The ceramic pressure microsensor consists of a bottom electrode deposited on a 96% alumina substrate and a top electrode deposited on a ceramic diaphragm. The ceramic cavity and diaphragm were created using a thick film sacrificial layer. Hermeticity of the pressure sensor was characterized to assess the sensor´s feasibility for MEMS applications such as harsh environment sealed gauge pressure sensors. The sensor showed excellent hermeticity with a maximum leak rate of 7.0 times 10^-10 atm cc/sec He after exposures to temperatures up to 500 degC. The sensor was also fully characterized up to 300 degC in a pressure range of 0 to 50 psi. The average sensitivity over these temperature and pressure ranges was 9.2 fF/psi

Keywords

alumina; ceramics; microsensors; pressure sensors; thick film devices; 0 to 50 psi; MEMS application; alumina substrate; ceramic capacitive pressure microsensor; screen-printed diaphragm; thick film screen printing; Capacitive sensors; Ceramics; Electrodes; Microsensors; Microstructure; Printing; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Substrates; Temperature sensors; Thick films;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Sensors, 2005 IEEE

Conference_Location

Irvine, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9056-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICSENS.2005.1597938

Filename

1597938