SBIR Phase II: Manufacturable Implementation of Thin Glass for Next Generation Electronics Packaging

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是为下一代通信电子产品开发封装平台，特别是用于国防和商业用途的5G应用。 为下一代通信和封装需求实现薄玻璃基板的处理将意味着更快的通信和更高的功率效率。广泛的应用和终端市场包括移动的设备和基础设施、汽车雷达、物联网和其他用途。该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目使薄玻璃封装解决方案能够在现有的半导体工厂中进行加工。随着对数据量的需求将无线技术推向30-100 GHz范围内的频带，常用的封装基板开始失效。 玻璃是一个有吸引力的替代品，因为它的尺寸稳定性，光滑的表面，低RF吸收高达100 GHz，有限的介电常数随温度的变化，和水分不敏感性。减小的厚度还减小了互连长度（产生低损耗和低延迟）并减小了总体产品厚度。薄玻璃在自立状态下可能难以处理。在该项目中，使用新型处理解决方案的薄玻璃将在两侧完全金属化和图案化，创建测试结构，验证玻璃通孔的完整性，可靠性和鲁棒性。优化的金属化方法将被探索，沿着改进二面加工，用于商业相关的晶圆衬底。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to develop a packaging platform for the next generation communications electronics, particularly for 5G applications for defense and commercial use. Enabling the processing of thin glass substrates for next-generation communications and packaging needs will mean faster communications with improved power efficiency. The wide range of applications and end markets include mobile devices and infrastructure, automotive radar, internet of things, and other uses. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project enables thin glass packaging solutions to be processed in existing semiconductor factories. As the need for data volume drives wireless technology towards frequency bands in the 30-100 GHz range, commonly used packaging substrates begin to fail. Glass is an attractive alternative due to its dimensional stability, smooth surfaces, low RF absorption up to 100 GHz, limited dielectric constant variation with temperature, and moisture insensitivity. Reduced thickness also decreases interconnect length (yielding low loss and low latency) and reduces overall product thickness. Thin glass can be difficult to handle in a free-standing state. In this project, thin glass using a novel handling solution will be fully metallized and patterned on both sides, creating test structures verifying through-glass via integrity, reliability, and robustness. Optimized metallization approaches will be explored, along with improvements to second-side processing, for commercially relevant wafer substrates.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.