SBIR PHASE I: Z-Axis Connectors Using Microporous Materials

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将展示一种使用微孔材料的新型z轴连接器技术。在这个项目中，铝板的厚度为0.05-0.5 mm，通过阳极氧化形成微孔氧化铝，这些微孔密集排列，垂直（z轴）孔的直径为亚微米，长径比超过500。当孔被镀上金属时，板沿板的平面具有非常高的电阻率，而通过板的厚度具有非常低的电阻率，从而在亚微米电路元件上实现两个平面电路阵列之间可靠的z轴连接。这种两个半导体电路之间的大质量连接器可以扩展到大面积，提供微米级的连接，并且不需要连接电路之间的精确对准，并且成本低。随着微孔氧化铝和硅的发展，可以在生长/沉积过程中形成微电路之间的z轴连接，直接在微电路上形成连接，而无需在电路之间进行机械放置步骤。预期的好处包括：(1)将密集的微传感器阵列（如压力、温度或光传感器“像素”）连接到包含信号处理、a - d转换等的后置读出芯片（“智能像素”）；(2)垂直堆叠（z-堆叠）VLSI电路，如存储器，或非常高密度的处理器和缓存堆栈；以及(3)大型平板显示器，例如通过在大面积上可靠地将薄膜晶体管阵列连接到LCD有源矩阵像素。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate a novel z-axis connector technology using microporous materials. In this project, aluminum plates, 0.05-0.5 mm thick, would be anodized to form microporous alumina with densely packed, straight vertical (z-axis) pores of submicron diameters, and length to diameter ratios exceeding 500. When the pores are plated up with metals, the plates would have very high resistivity along the plane of the plate, and very low resistivity through the plate thickness, thereby enabling reliable z-axis connections between 2 planar circuit arrays, on sub-micron circuit elements. Such a mass connector between 2 semiconductor circuits would scale to large areas, provide micron-scale connections, and require no precision alignment between the connected circuits and would be low cost. With development in microporous alumina and silicon, it may be possible to form z-axis connections between microcircuits in a growth/deposition process, forming the connection directly on microcircuits without mechanical placement steps between circuits. Anticipated benefits include: (1) the connection of dense arrays of microsensors, such as pressure, temperature or light sensor `pixels`, to a rear read-out chip containing signal processing, A-D conversion, etc. (`smart pixels`); (2) vertically stacked (z-stacked) VLSI circuits, such as memories, or processor and cache stacks of very high density; and (3) large flat panel displays, for example by connecting thin film transistor arrays to LCD active matrix pixels reliably over a large area.