Open Competition 1 - Electronics and Photonics

Ceramic Matrix Composite Boards for SOP and SIP Electronic Packaging

Sponsor: Starfire Systems

• Project Performance Period: 11/1/2002 - 10/31/2005
• Total project (est.): $3,826,508.00
• Requested ATP funds: $1,739,322.00

Trends in semiconductor electronics are challenging not only chip manufacturers but the makers of circuit boards as well. Circuit boards used for more than 95 percent of electronic products today are fiber-reinforced glass laminates. These boards are inexpensive and can be processed in large sizes (exceeding 24 inches), but they cannot support the high-speed and ultra-high-density integrated circuits that are coming. Ceramic boards offer the needed thermal and mechanical stability but cannot be processed in large-area sizes, making ceramic too expensive for most applications. Starfire Systems proposes to develop a low-cost, reliable polymer-derived ceramic composite circuit board capable of supporting microminiaturized electronic systems of the future. The board material will have the required mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties--such as high stiffness, low moisture absorption, resistance to warpage, low thermal expansion, and dimensional stability--to support extremely high wiring density, 4-8 layers of fine wiring, and multiple embedded functions. Starfire has already developed a patented low-cost silicon carbide ceramic-forming polymer that can be chemically tailored to meet the demanding temperature and performance requirements of advanced electronic systems. Using this polymer, Starfire will develop the processing technology for fabricating thin ceramic matrix composite structures reinforced with microfibers, thus enabling low-cost manufacturing of smooth, flat boards for advanced electronic systems. By designing a board material that matches silicon in expansion, an expensive underfilling process can be eliminated. The subcontractor, the Packaging Research Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.), will use its electronic systems expertise to develop process and computational models to predict board behavior and properties, layer fine wiring and electronic assemblies on finished boards, and conduct tests to validate that this new technology fulfills the requirements of advanced electronic packaging applications. Starfire needs ATP support to pursue this research because the long development times for project specific advanced materials have discouraged venture capital firms and other sources of funding. Starfire's proposed board technology will play a key role in next-generation innovation of system-on-a-package technology, which will provide 10-fold improvements in size, cost, reliability, and performance. System-on-a-package can deliver the advantages of system-level integration quicker and more cheaply than the problematical system-on-a-chip. In addition, the new board material could also boost the U.S. printed circuit board industry, which has been steadily losing ground to Pacific Rim competition.

For project information:

Steven Atmur, (518) 899-9336
atmurs@starfiresystems.com

ATP Project Manager

Gerald Castellucci, (301) 975-2435
gerald.castellucci@nist.gov