ORMOCER Materials Characterization, LAP- & Micro-Processing : Applied to Optical Interconnects and High-Frequency Packaging

ORMOCERR®s are organic-inorganic hybrid polymers. Since their material properties can be tailored precisely during synthesis, they are suitable for a wide range of applications in dielectric and optical microelectronics. This thesis reports on process development of ORMOCERR®s for Sequentially Build-Up (SBU) test vehicles, suitable for both electrical and optical interconnect. Furthermore, this work includes materials characterization, such as refractive index studies (system B59:V32), optical loss measurements (systems B59:V32 and B59:B66), and surface characterization through contact angle measurement and surface energy estimation (systems B59:V32 and B59:B66). Process development for a high-frequency test vehicle was performed applying a newly developed dielectric material of the ORMOCER® class. Dielectric layers in a total thickness of 80 μm were build-up on a common FR4 substrate, applying photolithographic processes and moderate process temperatures of below 433 K. The loss tangent and the permittivity of the material were measured to be 0.024 (loss tangent) and 3.05 (permittivity) over the entire frequency range 10 GHz to 40 GHz. The compatibility of the material to standard processes of the PCB industry was proven. Furthermore, a possibility for cost reduction in high-frequency MCM applications was shown, through the possibility of using low-cost substrates. The concept of a “flexible manufacture approach” for large-area panel optical backplane interconnects was introduced. Here, a 101.6 mm x 101.6 mm photolithographic mask is to be stepped-out over a large-area panel substrate (up to 609.6 mm x 609.6 mm). The goal is to be able to create a large amount of continuous and unique waveguide patterns over the whole area with a small portfolio of masks, thus being able to minimize excess costs. In practice continuous waveguide patterns were created over an area of 204.8 mm x 204.8 mm on a large-are panel (609.6 mm x 609.6 mm), using a large-are mask aligner and a