Ceramic Pressure Sensor for High Temperatures – Investigation of the Effect of Metallization on Read Range

A study on the relationship between circuit metallization, made by double-layer screen printing of platinum and electroplating of silver on top of platinum, and its impact on practical read range of ceramic LC resonators for high-temperature pressure measurements is presented. Also included is the first realization of membranes by draping a graphite insert with ceramic green body sheets. As a quality factor circuit reference, two-port microstrip meander devices were positively evaluated and to study interdiffusion between silver and platinum, test samples were annealed at 500 °C, 700 °C, and 900 °C for 4, 36, 72, and 96 h. The LC resonators were fabricated with both metallization methods, and the practical read range at room temperature was evaluated. Pressure-sensitive membranes were characterized for pressures up to 2.5 bar at room temperature, 500 °C and up to 900 °C. Samples electroplated with silver exhibited performance equal to or better than double-layer platinum samples for up to 60 h at 500 °C, 20 h at 700 °C, and for 1 h at 900 °C, which was correlated with the degree of interdiffusion as determined from cross-sectional analysis. The LC resonator samples with double-layer platinum exhibited a read range of 61 mm, and the samples with platinum and silver exhibited a read range of 59 mm. The lowest sheet resistance, and, thereby, the highest read range of 86 mm, was obtained with a silver electroplated LC resonator sample after 36 h of annealing at 500 °C.