Development of a Ultra-Thin Glass Based Pressure Sensor for High-Temperature Application

In this work, an ultra-thin glass substrate based absolute pressure sensor was developed and manufactured to study the implementation of different build-up technologies with focus on high-temperature sensor application. Physical vapour deposition was used to realise strain gauge sensor structures as well as several protective layers. Screen printed thick-film layers were applied to deposit routing traces. Also, a housing assembly using two ultra-thin glass substrates was achieved this way. The electrical connection to the measurement instrumentation was realised by either platinum or high purity nickel wires. Wires were connected to the contact pads by thick-film sintering. The measured overall thickness of the sensor is 390 µm. Furthermore, the ultra-thin glass substrates were cut by Laser and saw dicing resulting in a recommendation to prefer Laser dicing for future work. To characterise the pressure sensor, a customised pressure chamber with integrated muffle furnace was used. First tests showed that the manufactured sensor proved to be functional at temperatures of up to 450 °C while applying a pressure range of 1 to 5 bar (absolute).