Additive Manufacturing for 3D Electronic Substrates
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Summary
Problems
Current methods for producing electronic substrates are time-consuming and prone to defects, requiring extensive processes that include drilling, plating, and lamination, which limit routing density and are costly due to the use of expensive drill bits and materials with high thermal expansion coefficients, leading to issues like breakout, delamination, and plating voids.
Innovation solutions
Additive manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing and powder sintering are used to co-deposit insulative and conductive materials, allowing for the creation of three-dimensional electronic substrates with reduced process steps, faster production times, and the ability to attach components on any side, eliminating the need for drilling and plating, and matching the coefficient of thermal expansion of components to prevent solder joint failure.
TRIZ Analysis
Specific contradictions:
General conflict description:
Principle concept:
If mechanical drilling and plating processes are used to produce electronic substrates, then through-holes and conductive traces can be formed, but production time becomes excessively long (2-5 weeks for PWBs, 4-5 months for MCM substrates)
Why choose this principle:
The patent replaces mechanical drilling with laser drilling to form through-holes, and replaces mechanical plating with screen printing or aerosol jet printing to form conductive traces. This substitution of mechanical processes with thermal and deposition processes significantly reduces production time while maintaining manufacturing precision.
Principle concept:
If mechanical drilling and plating processes are used to produce electronic substrates, then through-holes and conductive traces can be formed, but production time becomes excessively long (2-5 weeks for PWBs, 4-5 months for MCM substrates)
Why choose this principle:
The patent extracts and eliminates the time-consuming lamination and curing steps from the traditional multi-step substrate fabrication process. By forming all features (through-holes, traces, pads) directly on the substrate surface without requiring sequential layer lamination, the process achieves rapid production while preserving manufacturing quality.
Application Domain
Data Source
AI summary:
Additive manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing and powder sintering are used to co-deposit insulative and conductive materials, allowing for the creation of three-dimensional electronic substrates with reduced process steps, faster production times, and the ability to attach components on any side, eliminating the need for drilling and plating, and matching the coefficient of thermal expansion of components to prevent solder joint failure.
Abstract
A method of forming electronic substrates and assemblies is provided. The method includes depositing a material. The material is deposited as a powder or slurry. The method includes sintering the material, and retrieving an article, including a solid electronic substrate. Also provided are electronic substrates formed by additive manufacturing, and methods of deploying the same.