Substrate-based thin-film circuits

A new substrate-based additive fabrication technique eliminates the sloping caused during traditional chemical etching, which results in performance variations and yield issues. The technique creates substrate-based, ultraminiaturized circuits with properties that include circuit lines and spaces as small as 10 μm, vias as small as 25 μm in diameter, plated through-holes to ground with “metal-backed” ceramics, and multilayer devices with up to six metal layers.

The process defines circuit lines by electroplating or sputtering metal traces onto either a rigid substrate in a single layer device or onto a polyimide layer in a multilayer device for extreme uniformity in geometries as well as the ability to deposit exactly the desired amount of metal in exactly the desired location.

Metrigraphics, 50 Concord St., Wilmington, MA 01887, (978) 658-6100