Ceramic packages prototyping for electronic components by using laser micromilling technology

Abstract

The use of adaptive laser micromilling technology for the fast prototyping ceramic package of electronic components in a miniature surface mount form factor (SMD) is describing. Current experimental results and practical evaluation of one show that using the developed software and hardware is possible successfully producing SMD packages starting from the SOT-723 form-factor in the direction of larger overall dimensions to SOT-475 form-factor. Also discussed are the limiting physical factors arising in the course of the application of laser micromilling technology, which affect the production speed and quality of the resulting product from monolithic ceramics.

Combination of Material Processing and Characterization Methods for Miniaturization of Field-Effect Gas Sensor

“…The characterization of the results of this work included two main areas: online optical research methods that helped in the manufacture of the case (optical and laser profilometry integrated into the production unit) and off-line research methods confirming the effectiveness of the online methods and the full working functionality of the sensor in a manufactured metal–ceramic package (SEM, tomography, and thermal imaging). We further describe the methods that helped us to confirm the full functionality of the product, and we omit the geometric parameters controlled by the widely available methods, as they were already described in [ 16 ].…”

“…To manufacture various parts of the developed 3D sensor model, a fiber laser with a power of 20 W, an adjustable pulse duration in the range of 50–200 ns, and a wavelength of 1.064 μm, controlled by specially developed software [ 16 ], was used. This approach allowed us to combine micromachining processing with the online measurement of the geometric parameters of the manufactured device with its 3D model and be confident in the quality of the result.…”

“…On the contrary, if the ceramic material is already sintered, then its storage time is not limited, and the availability is much wider than that of green tape ceramics. Motivated by the above arguments, as an alternative to LTCC technology, in our works [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ] we promote the technology of monolithic sintered ceramics laser processing to obtain metal–ceramic cases of a small series without incurring large resource and time costs. In this article, the step-by step strategy and results for the miniaturization of capacitive field-effect gas sensors with the transition from a form factor based on a bulky glass–metal TO-8 Ø12.7 × 7.5 mm package to a smaller planar custom 5.2 × 6.4 × 2.0 mm metal–ceramic package manufactured using adaptive laser micromilling technology is described.…”

Combination of Ceramic Laser Micromachining and Printed Technology as a Way for Rapid Prototyping Semiconductor Gas Sensors

“…The prototyping SMD packages was realized by laser micromilling technology with Al 2 O 3 ceramic substrates (96% alumina) in the size of 48 × 60 mm 2 in two thicknesses of 0.5 and 1 mm. The software and hardware developed for the micromilling process is described in more detail in the publication [24]. At the stage of 3D modeling, it is necessary to add jumpers to the model, which will hold it in the substrate (frame) array.…”

Silicon MEMS Thermocatalytic Gas Sensor in Miniature Surface Mounted Device Form

“…The 3D model of the package, as well as its dimensions in comparison with the metal-glass TO-8 package, are shown in Figure 2b. The SMD sensor package was made of already sintered monolithic ceramic material (96% Al 2 O 3 ) by using the laser micro-milling technique as described in work [32]. The metallization of the ceramic package is based on pure Ag inkjet ink, deposited locally by printing on the selected parts of the ceramic package.…”