Hybridizing Micromachining and Microfabrication for Sensor Chips

Abstract

We present an example of packaging a MEMS sensor for measuring fluctuations of the wall shear stress in turbulent fluid flows. For these sensors, topographical and thermal constraints required the development of a hybrid technique for the packaging. This involved standard microfabrication patterning to create the chip, sub-millimetre micro-machining and firing of low thermal conductivity ceramic, combined with shadow-mask-patterned metal film sputtering as well as wire etching, to address the constraints on packaging.