Silicon Carbide Microsystems for Harsh Environments

Book excerpt: Silicon Carbide Microsystems for Harsh Environments reviews state-of-the-art Silicon Carbide (SiC) technologies that, when combined, create microsystems capable of surviving in harsh environments, technological readiness of the system components, key issues when integrating these components into systems, and other hurdles in harsh environment operation. The authors use the SiC technology platform suite the model platform for developing harsh environment microsystems and then detail the current status of the specific individual technologies (electronics, MEMS, packaging). Additionally, methods towards system level integration of components and key challenges are evaluated and discussed based on the current state of SiC materials processing and device technology. Issues such as temperature mismatch, process compatibility and temperature stability of individual components and how these issues manifest when building the system receive thorough investigation. The material covered not only reviews the state-of-the-art MEMS devices, provides a framework for the joining of electronics and MEMS along with packaging into usable harsh-environment-ready sensor modules.