Overview of low temperature co-fired ceramics tape technology for meso-system technology (MsST)

For certain applications low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) tape materials used in multi-layer packages offers the potential of emulating a great deal of silicon sensor/actuator technology at the meso scale level. The goal of this review is to describe meso-system technology (MsST) using LTCC, thick film and silicon technologies. A mayor MST application being addressed today is fluid handling for miniaturized chemical analytical systems. For larger MST-3D applications, in the meso-size (from 10 to several hundred microns), it would be desirable to have a material compatible with hybrid micro-electronics, with suitable thermal, mechanical and electrical properties, easy to fabricate and inexpensive to process. Such a material is the LTCC tape multilayer system. One of the important features of LTCC technology is the possibility of fabricating 3D structures using multiple layers. In this review, we want to emphasize sensors and actuators for meso-systems exploring LTCC Tape possibilities in the following ways: Sensors for proximity measurement; Fluid media realization of vias, holes, cavities, channels and manifolds; Sensors for flow measurement: Actuators for hybrid microvalues & micropumps. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B,V. All rights reserved.