New LTCC substrate foundry service from KOA

5th July 2007

ES Admin

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The needs for miniaturization, increased reliability and operation at elevated ambient temperatures have driven the development of ceramic based substrates and packages for electronics during the past decade. Among other technologies, LTCC have proven their superior performance in many applications, comprising high temperature automotive as well as high reliability medical and high frequency communications applications. Another application area is the production of packages for micro mechanical electrical systems (MEMS).

KOA offers foundry services to their customers to provide LTCC substrate solutions for various applications. Based on CAD-construction drawings, LTCC substrates are manufactured to fit into customer-specific applications.

KOA's proprietary green sheet production process safeguards a maximum degree of freedom related to the mechanical and electrical properties of the substrate material. Using a freeshrinkage process, excellent three-dimensional accuracy is attained. Cavities for the placement of high frequency silicon dies as well as pipes for the transport of gaseous and liquid substances to a sensing device may be implemented.

Application examples comprise wireless communication equipment and biomedical or biochemical “smart” sensors. The existing, state-of-the-art manufacture process allows for
conducting traces with 60 microns line width and 60 microns distance.

The main challenges for the future development of the technology are efficiency increase (especially for small volume demands) and further miniaturization. KOA researchers focus mainly on novel technologies for the metalizing process of LTCC multi-layer substrate.

A significant step into the direction of improved cost efficiency is the utilization of ink-jet printing technology to print conducting traces directly from an electronic file to the green sheet. The ink-jet technology allows for finer patterns in the multilayer substrate than the screen-printing method. In a joint research project together with Seiko-Epson, KOA demonstrated the feasibility of fine line printing with a special ink-jet device. The line/space = 30/30 μm fine patterns were created utilizing
silver nano-particle dispersed ink and a conventional ceramics material system.

On the outer layers of the fired substrate, even more fine patterns of line/space = 10/10 μm are possible by the application of methods already established in the production of KOA's thin film technology resistors.

Future enhancements of the manufacture methods of the conducting tracks and vias will yield further miniaturization of the substrates. The range of applications accessible to LTCC solutions will be broadened.