Glass 3D Solenoid Inductors IPD Substrate Manufacturing Assembly and Characterization
Citation
Chun-Hsien Chien, Yu-Hua Chen, Yu-Chung Hsieh, Wei-Ti Lin, Chien-Chou Chen, Dyi-Chung Hu, Tzvy-Jang Tseng, and Ravi Shenoy. “Glass 3D Solenoid Inductors IPD Substrate Manufacturing Assembly and Characterization." 2016 International Symposium on Microelectronics, San Jose, CA, USA, October 2016, pp. 1-8.
Keywords
- 3D Solenoid Inductors
- Glass Core Substrate
- Through Glass Via (TGV) Technology
- RF Applications
- High-Q Passives
- IPD (Integrated Passive Device)
- Semi-additive Conformal Copper Electroplating
Brief
This article discusses the integration of 3D solenoid inductors fabricated by using a glass core substrate with Through Glass Via (TGV) technology for use in RF applications.
Summary
The article discusses the development and characterization of 3D solenoid inductors fabricated using a glass core substrate with through glass via (TGV) technology. The authors chose glass for the substrate due to its low insertion loss, adjustable coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), low surface roughness, and high insulation properties making it suitable for radio frequency (RF) applications.
Here are the key findings presented in the article:
- High-Q 3D RF solenoid inductors can be created using the insulating nature of glass materials and TGV technology. This method allows for greater cross-sectional area and a higher number of turns using just two masking layers.
- The article outlines the fabrication process for the 3D TGV solenoid inductor structure using a semi-additive plating (SAP) process. This includes steps such as dielectric material lamination, seed layer deposition, lithography patterning, copper electroplating, and a stripping/etching process.
- The researchers used a 508mm x 508mm glass panel size, which is expected to lower the unit cost in high volume manufacturing (HVM) lines.
- The article details the characterization of various aspects of the process and the final product, such as TGV formation, the double-sided glass substrate process flow, semi-additive conformal copper electroplating, and the assembly of silicon chips onto the glass substrate.
- The electrical performance of the 3D solenoid inductors was evaluated showing a quality factor of 60 at 1GHz and 80 at 2GHz. This surpasses the performance of 2D spiral inductors, highlighting the potential of glass core substrates with TGV technology in RF wireless applications.