Ceramic microcomponents for high-temperature fluidics

For aggressive environments, the material properties of silicon become a limitation. Macroscopically, ceramics are as abundant for high-temperature applications as is silicon in miniaturized systems, but this group of materials has been little exploited for MEMS components. A major reason is the lack of means for high-resolution structuring. This paper describes the application of silicon-based manufacturing processes in the fabrication of ceramic yet truly micromechanical structures and devices for very high-temperature applications, and demonstrates the technique’s implementation in, and significance for, high-temperature microfluidics. Embossing of structures down to 2 µm wide is demonstrated, as well as deep embossing (50 µm), punching through 15 µm tape, and lamination of structured layers. The resulting samples survive temperatures of 1400ºC