DuPont Microcircuit Materials Presents New Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic Materials Developments at IMAPS 2011

DuPont continues to lead the industry with its LTCC material systems technology,” said Scott E. Gordon, market segment manager, DuPont Microcircuit Materials. “We continue to invest in advanced material systems, and we are now building on the success of the GreenTape™ 9K7 LTCC system offering. We have developed the new GreenTape™ 9K5 material, placing greater emphasis on the growing market need for efficient and cost effective LTCC antennas within high speed, high reliability subsystems such as automotive radar and other applications operating above 50 GHz. We look forward to a full commercial introduction of this new material set, and working closely with our customers to enable their most challenging new designs.”

The new development is expected to be introduced commercially during 2012.
LTCC material systems are successfully used in microwave and millimeter wave systems and are chosen because of their very low dielectric loss, high reliability properties and favorable cost-performance balance. To enable and extend applications of LTCC technology to millimeter frequency subsystems, DuPont has developed a new low dielectric constant materials system, DuPont™ GreenTape™ 9K5 LTCC, which has a dielectric constant of 5.80 (at 10 GHz) that is compatible with the commercial DuPont™ GreenTape™ 9K7 LTCC System. This is achieved without compromising excellent microwave loss properties of the GreenTape™ 9KX LTCC platform. These materials systems enable high-speed, high reliability applications while also realizing efficient antennas on LTCC.

The paper, “Introducing the DuPont™ GreenTape™ 9K5 LTCC System with Low Dielectric Constant,” will be presented on Wed., Oct. 12, during the Ceramic and LTCC Packaging I Session (WA3). Deepukumar M. Nair, applications development manager, will present initial characterization of the new DuPont™ GreenTape™ 9K5 LTCC system consisting of low K dielectric tape, gold and silver conductors to evaluate the effects of chemistry, processing conditions, processing latitude, microstructure and microwave performance. Test coupons with various transmission and resonating structures are designed, fabricated, and tested for the evaluation of transmission losses and dielectric properties. Stability of the material system over multiple re-fire steps is also examined

Nair also will present a paper entitled, “Bulk and In-Circuit Dielectric Characterization of LTCC Tape Systems Through Millimeter Wave Frequency Range,” on Wed., Oct. 12, as part of the Ceramic and LTCC Packaging II Session (WP3). For LTCC based designs, the use of dielectric constant of bulk material can lead to deviations between the performance expected at the design stage and for the fabricated circuit. Such deviations are a significant concern for broadband circuits as well as for circuits with sharp resonant behavior such as filters. One of the significant sources of deviation between bulk LTCC and “in-circuit” dielectric constant is the nature of the thick film metallizations used in LTCC technology. The paper describes a comprehensive characterization of three DuPont™ GreenTape™ LTCC systems, 951, 943 and 9K7, in the frequency range 10 to 65 GHz. Both bulk and “in-circuit” dielectric properties with silver and gold metallizations are studied to quantify the deviations in dielectric properties. This comprehensive characterization provides key design data for LTCC designers in the 10 – 65 GHz frequency range.