Additively printed hybrid ceramic components for microsystem applications

Ceramics are one of the more difficult materials to fabricate into complex morphologies and are challenging to employ. Low or High Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC/HTCC) have a wide range of applications in different fields of electronics and microsystem applications. LTCC/HTCC devices are manufactured by applying conductive, dielectric, and resistive metal pastes on each ceramic substrate sheet or tape as needed and then pressed together in a specified sequence, laminating them together. This ceramic sheet of printed metal is then fired or sintered which takes place at temperature below 1000°C for LTCC and above 1000°C for HTCC. The resulting package is a multilayer, three-dimensional design that is considerably more compact than a traditional planar microsystems component.