Imanaka Y. Multilayered Low Temperature Cofired Ceramics (LTCC) Technology

Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. Boston, 2005. — 229 p.
eBook ISBN: 0-387-23314-8
Print ISBN: 0-387-23130-7In recent years, Low Temperature Cofired Ceramics (LTCC) have become an attractive technology for electronic components and substrates that are compact, light, and offer high-speed and functionality for portable electronic devices such as the cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and personal computers used for wireless voice and data communication in
rapidly expanding mobile network systems. For their wiring, these LTCCs use metals such as Cu, Ag, and Au with little conductor loss and low electrical resistance at high frequencies, while the ceramics used in LTCCs have lower dielectric loss than organic materials. This makes LTCCs especially suitable for the high frequency circuits required for high-speed data communications.
During the late 1980s, U.S. and Japanese manufacturers of computers and ceramic materials conducted extensive research and development of LTCC technology that is now crucial to present day and future communications technologies. At that time Fujitsu and IBM America produced a large, multilayer ceramic substrate (meeting Fujitsu’s specifications of 254 × 254 mm with 60 layers) with a copper wire pattern for use in mainframe computers. I was involved in developing and producing this substrate and from the standpoint of manufacturing, the level of technology employed then far exceeds that of current LTCC products. The substrate was produced using very precise control of a host of manufacturing parameters. However, no book was published concerning the high level of LTCC technology of that time, and I was very concerned that this technology would be forgotten. So in order for this technology to survive into the future, I made a systematic compilation of LTCC technology to serve primarily as a benchmark. This book gives an account from the engineering perspective of the technology development at Fujitsu for the mainframe computer substrate mentioned above. In addition, I present some basic scientific material needed to understand this technology. In Japan we have an old Chinese saying onkochishin which means studying the old in order to find new knowledge and techniques. Old things are remade into new things. Ideas of a previous age are redeveloped. I believe this applies as much to technology as to the world of music and fashion. I hope that this book will contribute to efforts to combine elements of earlier LTCC technology with something new, in order to create entirely different technologies.
I myself am an engineer involved in research and development of LTCC technology and I am working on the development of new technologies. These technologies are not complete; they are work in progress. I hope to revise and further expand the material in this first book to offer an even better resource.AcknowledgementsCeramic Materials
Conducting Material
Resistor Materials and High K Dielectric Materials
Powder Mixing and Kneading
Casting
Printing and Laminating
Co-firing - Reliability
Future of LTCCsList of Figures
List of Tables