Optomec announced today that Dr. Mike Renn, Optomec Advanced Applications Lab Director, will give a presentation titled "Aerosol Jet Printing of Conductive Epoxy for 3D Packaging" in the Advanced Materials track at the Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium in Hawaii. The conference will be held January 22-24 at the Makena Beach and Golf resort in Maui.

Dr. Renn will discuss how traditional dispensing technologies are typically limited to feature sizes above 100 microns and have limited 3D capability due to near or direct-surface contact with the substrate. Conductive adhesives for these systems typically contain large metallic flakes which lead to inconsistent conductivity in small features such as dots. The presentation will explain how a new, nanoparticle conductive adhesive, when dispensed with an Aerosol Jet Printer, demonstrated non-contact printing over 3D surfaces and into recesses such as through silicon vias (TSV). The conductive adhesive, manufactured by Resin Designs, is a high-solids, nanoparticle system with resistivity as low at 5 μW-cm at 150º C cure temperatures. The adhesive has superior thermal conductivity, adhesion, and elasticity, which are desirable for fabricating heterogeneous connections, such as between IC chips and circuit boards. The material can be Aerosol Jet dispensed with dot sizes down to 25 μm, which enables high-density die attach. Similarly, TSV filling has been demonstrated with via diameters down to 50 μm and depths of 300 μm. The high-solids formulation reduces the material shrinkage during curing resulting in a dense conductive plug.

Aerosol Jet printing has mainly been used for dispensing nanosilver inks for photovoltaics, printed circuits, and printed antenna. One major advantage of this system is that fine feature printing, down to 10 μm feature size, can be achieved with a surprisingly large standoff height (up to 10 mm). This capability allows for printing in recessed regions such as vias, over step edges such as SMT devices, and over non-planar substrates such as populated boards. In contrast to other jetting techniques, the ink droplets in the Aerosol Jet system do not actually interact with the surfaces of the nozzle. This feature results in greatly reduced frequency of clogging and less sensitivity to specific ink rheologies, such as viscosity, surface tension and solids loading. For more information on Aerosol Jet printing, click here.

The Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium promotes international technical interchange and provides a premier forum for networking among microelectronics professionals and business leaders throughout the world. Conference sessions include Failure Analysis Tools and Techniques, Strategic Directions, 3D Structures, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing Challenges, Trends, Roadmaps, and more. For details on the conference, go to http://www.smta.org/panpac/.

Optomec is a privately-held, rapidly growing supplier of Additive Manufacturing systems. These solutions utilize Optomec’s patented Aerosol Jet Printed Electronics technology and LENS Printed Metal technology to reduce costs and improve performance. Together, these unique 2D and 3D printing solutions work with the broadest spectrum of functional materials, ranging from electronic inks to structural metals and even biological matter. Optomec has more than 150 marquee customers around the world, targeting production applications in the Electronics, Energy, Life Sciences and Aerospace industries.