Fabrication of embedded fine line inductors by constrained sintering and formulation of photoimageable conductive paste

Abstract

For miniaturisation and precision of electronic device, the new technologies such as photoimageable thick film process were combined with conventional thick film process, and constrained sintering with near zero shrinkage in the x and y direction has been proposed. In this research, photoimageable conductive paste for forming embedded components via constrained sintering by low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technology was formulated. Afterwards, by optimising paste formulation, formation process of fine line and sintering method, miniaturised LTCC components especially embedded fine line inductors were fabricated and their properties such as line resolution, surface morphology and yield were investigated. As a result, embedded fine line inductors formed by constrained sintering with fine line resolution of 20 mm and yield over 90% were acquired.