A ceramic capacitive pressure microsensor with screen-printed diaphragm

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

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