Publications

Ceramic packaging for MEMS-based microsystems

Custer, Jonathan S.; Custer, Jonathan S.

Ceramic packaging is crucial to the development of MEMS-based microsystems. It is an enabling technology, giving the ability to build complex packages that combine MEMS, electronics, optics, and sensors in a compact volume. In addition, ceramic hermetic packaging has a long history of providing protection to the enclosed devices, even under harsh conditions. These capabilities are being used at Sandia to package complex, MEMS-based microsystems. Looking ahead, ceramic packaging is developing new capabilities important to microsystems, such as the addition of fluidic channels. These developments will make ceramic packaging a viable option for a wide variety of compact, highly integrated microsystems. However, MEMS, particularly surface micromachines, have new reliability concerns that ceramic packaging needs to address. One example is stiction, where small amounts of water can generate surface forces large enough to cause parts to stick together. This demonstrates the need to measure and control the internal environment with greater precision than has been required in the past. Despite these challenges, it is clear that ceramic packaging will be a key technology for complex microsystems in the future.