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.