Ceramic Hybrid Electromechanical Systems

Ceramic hybrid electromechanical systems (CHEMS) have been proposed to overcome some of the disadvantages while retaining most of the advantages of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Whereas MEMS are fabricated mostly by micromachining of silicon and have typical feature sizes of the order of microns or smaller, CHEMS could be fabricated on ceramic substrates by a wider variety of techniques and would have typical feature sizes ranging from tens of microns to millimeters. Depending on specific applications, CHEMS could serve as alternatives or complements to MEMS. CHEMS could be readily incorporated, along with integrated circuits and other microscopic components, into ceramic-based hybrid multilayer packages (e.g., multichip modules).