Laser transfer articles and method of making

Abstract

The present invention is directed to methods for transferring pre-formed electronic devices, such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, diodes, semiconductors, inductors, conductors, and dielectrics, and segments of materials, such as magnetic materials and crystalline materials onto a variety of receiving substrates using energetic beam transfer methods. Also provided is a consumable intermediate comprising a transfer substrate and a transfer material coated thereon, wherein the transfer material may be comprised of pre-formed electronic devices or magnetic materials and crystalline materials that may be transferred to a variety of receiving substrates. Aspects of the present invention may also be used to form multi-device electronic components such as sensor devices, electro-optical devices, communications devices, transmit-receive modules, and phased arrays using the consumable intermediates and transfer methods described herein.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 935,461 filed Sep. 7, 2004, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 500,795 filed Sep. 5, 2003, both applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.REFERENCE TO GOVERNMENT INTEREST[0002]This invention was made with Government support under contracts DASG60-02-C-0039 and DAAH01-03-C-R223 awarded by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command. The Government has certain rights in this invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Fabrication in the semiconductor and electronics industries relies on material transfer techniques. Semiconductor device transfer, for example, may be accomplished by a process of mounting and mechanically dicing semiconductor wafers to singulate the devices, followed by a device transfer step using a robotic “pick-and-place” system.[0004]Another pro...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transferring pre-formed electronic devices and other materials onto receiving substrates using energy sources. The method involves using a transfer substrate with pre-formed electronic devices or other components placed on it, and exposing the transfer substrate to an energy source to transfer the components to the receiving substrate. The transfer material can be a composite transfer sheet with one or more dynamic release layers, or a transfer material directly fabricated onto the transfer substrate. The transfer process can be computer-controlled, and the transfer material can include materials such as magnetic materials, crystalline materials, and semiconductor wafers. The receiving substrate can be rigid or flexible, and can be selected from polymers, glass, metals, and composites. The transfer process can be used to create multi-device electronic components, sensors, communication devices, and other electronic devices. The invention provides a more efficient and flexible method for transferring electronic devices and other materials onto receiving substrates.

Problems solved by technology

However, this process relies on statistics and requires special equipment.

Because the film material is vaporized by the action of the laser, laser induced forward transfer is inherently a homogeneous, pyrolytic technique and typically cannot be used to deposit complex crystalline, multi-component materials or materials that have a crystallization temperature well above room temperature because the resulting deposited material will be a weakly-adherent amorphous coating.

Moreover, because the material to be transferred is vaporized, it becomes more reactive and can more easily become degraded, oxidized or contaminated.

The method is not well suited for the transfer of organic materials, since many organic materials are fragile and thermally labile and can be irreversibly damaged during deposition.

For example, functional groups on an organic polymer can be irreversibly damaged by direct exposure to laser energy.

Other disadvantages of the laser induced forward transfer technique include poor surface-coverage uniformity, morphology, adhesion and resolution.

Further, because of the high temperatures involved in the process, there is a danger of ablation or sputtering of the support which can cause the incorporation of impurities in the material that is deposited on the receiving substrate.

Another disadvantage of laser induced forward transfer is that it typically requires that the coating of the material to be transferred be a thin coating, generally less than 1 micron thick.

Because of this requirement, it is very time-consuming to transfer more than very small amounts of material.

A disadvantage of this method is that, because many materials were present on the laser-transparent substrate, it is difficult to achieve a highly homogeneous coating of the material of interest.

Integrated circuit (IC) devices with these feature sizes (and associated high-performance) cannot be fabricated using direct write technologies.

A pick and place system can only transfer one device at a time, and cannot handle putting devices across a large area with high accuracy.

Because the costs of fabricating / building on a flexible or curved substrate are very high, there remains a need to transfer a pre-formed device onto a flexible or curved substrate as a late-stage processing step.

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