Investigation of Additive Manufacturing of Improve Ceramic Packages for Detectors

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Space science missions require infrared detectors which are operating at temperatures of 170 K or even lower temperatures (e.g. such as GAIA). For such type of science missions SiC based packages are required which provide also an internal routing of electrical signals. Aluminium Nitride (AlN) or Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) packages offer a very good performance for image sensors but one of their disadvantages is a high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Science missions required SiC as a package material due to a very low CTE. Main objective of this activity is focused on developing a complete SiC package solution, integrating interconnection within the body of the package by using additive manufacturing. Besides the design of a SiC based package as another part of the activity different manufacturing concepts will be investigated.