Optomec’s 3D printed semiconductor packaging solution increases 5G signal by up to 100%

5G brings huge market opportunities. Among them, packaging is an important part of the semiconductor production process, and it is also a part of the semiconductor industry where China has obvious competitive advantages. The upstream and downstream supply chain of the packaging industry is divided into four major areas: IC design, wafer manufacturing, semiconductor materials, and semiconductor equipment. As the largest chip consuming country, China itself has a huge packaging market space.

5G technology has gradually matured, and smart electronic devices represented by mobile phones have increasingly higher requirements for chip performance and power consumption, which has promoted the accelerated development of the semiconductor field to advanced manufacturing processes and advanced packaging. How to maximize chip efficiency and minimize package volume has become an unremitting pursuit of enterprises.

© Optomec

According to Saizhi Times, affected by the rapid growth of 5G equipment and 5G base station construction, my country’s semiconductor market will maintain a growth trend in 2020, with a market size of 2,193.3 billion yuan, an increase of 9% from 2019. The semiconductor industry chain includes upstream supporting industries, midstream manufacturing industries, and downstream application industries. The upstream supporting industries are mainly composed of semiconductor materials and equipment, the core of the midstream manufacturing industry is the manufacture of integrated circuits, and the downstream is the semiconductor application field.

As the lower link in the integrated circuit industry chain, packaging has a lower profit than other links. Under the dual pressure of profit and market competition, only by continuously improving core capabilities can we obtain a larger market.

Better connection

Recently, Optomec announced that it has launched a new high-performance semiconductor packaging solution for the fast-growing millimeter-wave electronics market in response to the needs of its customers in the 5G, autonomous vehicles, defense and medical fields.

The use of millimeter-wave integrated circuits (ICs) is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 27%, but is hampered in many applications because the traditional technology used to connect ICs to circuits leads to low wireless range and/or high power consumption. By connecting in a low-loss way to maintain device performance, Optomec’s 3D printing interconnect solution solves this shortcoming.

Typical wireless networks in today’s homes or offices operate at 5 GHz, and next-generation wireless millimeter wave networks will operate at frequencies up to 53 GHz; automotive radars, defense applications, and medical imaging sensors operate at even higher frequencies. The old method of connecting ICs, such as the use of small gold wires, will work worse and worse as the frequency increases.

The millimeter wave frequency band includes 30 to 300 GHz, and the transmission signal power of each circuit connection in the millimeter range has increased by 100%. This means that the point-to-point range of wireless data transmission is longer, energy consumption is lower, and because low-power ICs can operate at lower temperatures, the IC has a longer lifespan. The Aerosol Jet® printing IC connection method is more efficient, and its performance is almost comparable to the thick copper circuit board etching method.

According to Optomec, many industries that use millimeter wave bands have seen3D printingThe benefits of interconnecting instead of standard wires or ribbon bonding.3D printingBringing shorter and better impedance matching conversion, the direct benefit is to reduce the loss of each chip-to-chip or chip-to-board conversion, so that the overall equipment efficiency and performance are improved.

According to the understanding of 3D Science Valley, Optomec’s Aerosol Jet® process works by jetting extremely fine nano-particle conductive ink droplets from a distance of up to 10 mm onto circuit boards and components, which can produce a conductive thickness of 10 microns. feature. Optomec’s new Aerosol Jet® HD2 printer has ultra-high print resolution and integrated vision-based alignment. Optomec further provides pre-certified printing recipes and application libraries to provide a total solution that can be used in production.

Multi-material3D printingAccelerate development

According to the ACAM Aachen Additive Manufacturing Center at the 2021 formnext Shenzhen exhibition on “Additive manufacturing technology “deep dive”-cutting-edge development trend“Share,3D printing-The development trend of additive manufacturing is toward a multi-dimensional deepening level. A major current development trend includes the development trend of multi-materials.3D printingThe advantages of realizing complex products (including the complexity of geometric features and the complexity of multi-material combination) are3D printingBreak through the current application’s economic requirements, and extend to the application end a development path towards industrialization.

Optomec has delivered more than 500 sets of proprietary additive manufacturing systems to more than 200 large customers worldwide for production applications in the electronics, energy, life sciences, and aerospace industries. Its users include General Electric, Samsung, Raytheon, Siemens, Lockheed, as well as the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and NASA.

In September 2021, Optomec also announced that one of its long-term production customers has recently purchased five (5) Aerosol Jet 3D electronic printers, with the total number reaching 15 devices over time. The order of more than 1 million US dollars is part of the mass production plan, which will grow to more than 25 equipment purchases in the next 12 months. The customer is the world’s leading manufacturer of electronic systems and other advanced technology products, with annual sales exceeding US$20 billion. Since 2018, they have been using Optomec’s patented Aerosol Jet 3D printing electronic solution in production for advanced semiconductor packaging applications in proprietary mobile device terminal products.

Optomec’s patented Aerosol Jet 3D electronic printer is a unique additive electronic solution that can directly print high-resolution conductive circuits with feature sizes as small as 10 microns. The further difference of this process is that it can be printed on non-planar substrates and full three-dimensional terminal parts. Production applications include direct printing of 3D antennas, 3D sensors, medical electronics, semiconductor packaging, and display assembly.

A major high-value use case for semiconductor packaging is printing 3D interconnects to connect chips to other chips, traditional circuit boards, and even directly integrated into end products such as wearable devices. In this case, the process replaces traditional wire welding because it has smaller space requirements, lower losses (especially in high frequency and millimeter waves) and higher mechanical reliability.

Optomec’s micron-level aerosol jet technology is a combination of the company’s mature aerosol jet fine printing solution and an in-situ curing proprietary technology that can achieve rapid instant solidification.With other high resolution3D printingThe difference in technology is that other3D printingThe technology is to perform a comprehensive material deposition and then partially solidify according to the pattern, while the aerosol spray technology is to perform partial material deposition and partial solidification, which makes the entire process more economical in terms of material consumption, and it is also the technology that achieves high resolution. The essential.

Early use of Optomec aerosol jet3D printingThe customers of the technology have already applied the technology to the field of smart devices and microfluidics. This technology can be used to print out micron-level high aspect ratios and irregularly shaped 3D structures using materials such as photopolymers without adding support structures. By printing these 3D structures directly on structures such as antennas, sensors, semiconductor chips, medical equipment or industrial parts, functional 3D electronic components can be manufactured on a single device. This direct digital method optimizes the manufacturing process and reduces the production steps and material consumption. Therefore, the aerosol jet 3D microstructure printing technology is also an economical and green technology.

(Editor in charge: admin)