Franz Bechtold - VIA electronic

IMAPS/ACerS 2 nd International Conference on Ceramic 

Interconnect and Ceramic Microsystems Technologies (CICMT) 

Keynote Presentation: 

„A Specialist Manufacturer's Outlook on the 

Future of Cera mics and Ceramic Microsystem s“ 

Franz Bechtold 

VIA electronic GmbH, Hermsdorf 

www.via-electronic.de 

. 

IMAPS/ACerS 2 nd International Conference on Ceramic Interconnect 

and Ceramic Microsystem Technologies, Denver, April 24 – 27, 2006 

Franz Bechtold, VIA electronic GmbH

… Outlook on the Future of Cera mics and Ceramic Microsyste ms: 

Overview 

• Introduction: VIA electronic, Historical Bricks 

Interoduction: Ceramic Technologies in Electronic Applications 

LTCC Business: Ups and Downs, Success and Failures, Market 

Relevance, Technology Drivers, 

• State of the art: LTCC vs. PCB and Si, Large and S mall companies 

• LTCC perspectives: Sm art Components, Integrated Passives, Wafer 

level Packaging, Optoelectronics integration, Biofluidics 

• Conclusion: Risk and O p portunities 





Introduction: General Company Informations 

VIA electronic GmbH is located in 

Hermsdorf/Germany 

We consider ourselve as a „SMART LTCC 

Foundry“, specialised in the realisation of 

innovative solutions in LTCC Technology. 

On the market since 1997 with 17 Employees 

per today 

Certified according to ISO 9001:2000 





Introduction: Historical Bricks 

Region: Hermsdorf is a center for Technical Ceramics 

since 1910. 

Up to 1989 The „Ceramic Plants“ of 

Hermsdorf were a 7.000 people company 

Company: VIA electroncic was found in Hermsdorf in 

1997 as a management buy out of Siegert 

electronic, a German Hybrid manufacturer 

dealing with LTCC since 1986 





Introduction: Services and Customer Products 

advanced C A D design 

flexible manufacturing line 

all lot sizes 

> 1 M sqi of circuits per year 

high precision processing 

different material system s 

• rfmodules 

3D packages 

multichip m o d ules 

multilayer ceramic boards 

• multilayercomponents 

thinfilm substrates 





Introduction: Ceramic Technologies and their Applications 

Ceramic Technologies and Application Do m ains in Electronics 

• Thickfilm on Alumina: Industrial, Auto m otive, Military, Aerospace, Medical 

• DCB on Alumina: Automotive, Industrial Equip m ent 

• Thickfilm on AlN: Military and Aerospace 

• DCB on AlN: Military and Aerospace 

• Thinfilm on Alumina: Military, Aerospace, Teleco m, Industrial Equipment 

• Thinfilm on AlN: Telecom, Military, Aerospace, Medical, Industrial 

• Alumina/HTC C/Thickfilm: Telecom, Military, Aerospace, Medical, Industrial 

• AlN/HTCC/Thickfilm: Military, Aerospace 

• LTCC/Thickfilm : Automotive, Telecom, Industrial, Medical, Military, 

Aerospace 





State of the art: Ceramic Technologies and their Applications 

The more specialised, the smaller the market. 

The following part will focus on LTC C as the most advanced and 

widely spread ceramic technology in electronic applications with the 

highestinnovation potential for em erging markets 





State of the art: Ceramic Technologies between PCB and Si 

Technical performance 

Life time 

Insulation resistivity 

High temperature resistivity 

Acceleration resistivity 

Thermal conductivity 

Electrical conductivity 

Integration density 

Integration of passive components 

Integration of fluidics 

Rf Stability 

µ-VIA 

Technologie 



Franz Bechtold, VIA electronic GmbH 

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Si 

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Economical Performance 

Costs per Interconnection 

Development and tooling costs 

Time to Market 

Simulation tools 

Automated routing tools 

Logistic 

Infrastructure of suppliers 

Infrastructure manufacturing technique 

Infrastructure R&D 

PCB 

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LTCC 

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Si 

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Silicon: best reliability, constraints concerning passiv integration, insulation 

resistivity, electrical conductivity and te m perature stability 

low cost per Interconnection, highest area costs, high tooling costs, 

long time to market, good infrastructur 

LTCC: good reliability, advantages concerning passiv integration, 

insulation resistivity, electrical conductivity and temperature stability 

medium cost per Interconnection, medium area costs, reasonable 

tooling costs, relatively short time to market 

bad infrastructur 

PCB: poor reliability, constraints concerning passiv integration, 

insulation resistivity, rfstability and temperature stability 

low cost per Interconnection, lowest area costs, lowest tooling costs, 

very short time to market 

very good infrastructur 





LTCC Business: Ups and Downs in Europe 

Until 1995: Narrow niche marketin high price high performance sections 

Until 2000: Break through in mass markets: IT, Telecom and Automotive 

Until 2001: Overestimation of ltcc for in m ass products in Telecom 

heavy investm ents in manufacturing capacities 

Until2002: Underestimation of develop m ent costs and time, late market 

introduction, break do w n of the Teleco m market 

Until 2004: end of life for high runner products, change to less expensive 

technologies, consolidation of the installed capacities 

Untiltoday: Detachement of LTCC by more cost effective technologies 

Gain of new applications through increasing require ments 





LTCC Business: success and failure stories of high runners 

Hard Disc Driver, Information Technology, Mass Market 

Ramp up and ramp down of several world wide supplyers within 3 Years, new generation 

without ceramic. Involved: Sorep, NS, CT S, Scrantu m 

Blue Tooth, Information Technology, Mass Market 

Heavy investment and fast ram p up at the biggest European supplier on the free market, 

instableload, Involved: Thales (Sorep), DTM, Taiwan 

A BS/MotorcontrollUnit/Gear ControllUntit, Auto motive, High Volu m e Market 

Heavy invstment and fast ram p up at the biggest European supplier on the captive 

market.Involved: Bosch 






M otor Managem ent/Gear Car Controll, Auto motive, High Volume Market 

Heavy investments and ra mp up at the second European supplier on the open market. Long 

lasting product qualification including a new m aterial system. Delay in time to market. 

Involved: Su mitomo, Elektrokera mik, C-Mac and EPCOS 

Triband Front end module, Teleco m, Mass Market 

Heavy investm ent and steady ramp up to diversify from co mponents to subsystems on the 

captive market: EPC OS 






Successful: 

Captive suppliers Bosch in Automotive 

and Epcos bothin Teleco m and Auto motive Business, captive and free market 

W hy: Subsyste m supplier, high added value chain, given cera mic structure 

Failed: 

S u p pliers on the open marketin IT, Teleco m and Autom otive business outside far- 

east: Elektrokera mik, C-Mac, Thales, National Se miconductor, CTS 

W hy: Foundry, low added value, cera mic structure had to be invested 





LTCC Business: Market Relevance versus Market Size 

Market relevance Market Size 

Entertainment 

Consumer 

Information Technologie 

Teleco m 

Auto motive 

Industrial Equip m ent 

Military/Aerospace 





LTCC Business: Technology Driver versus Market Domain 

Market Do m ain 

Entertainment 

Consumer 

Information Technologie 

Telecom 

Automotive 

Industrial Equipment 

Military/Aerospace 

Main Technology Drivers 

Cost, Size 

Cost, Size 

Cost, Integration Density, Reliability 

Costs, Integration Density, Reliability 

Costs, Reliability, Weight, 

Feasability, Costs, Reliability 




Reliability, Integration Density, Weight, Costs


LTCC Business: Technology Driver versus Market Domain 

All volume applications are cost driven. 

Cera mic can provide cost advantages at 

system level for new packaging solutions 

Cera mic rem ains a cost driver 

Each cost driver will be designed out as far 

as possible during change of generations 





LTCC outlook: Emerging Market Opportunities and challanges 

Opportunity 

Biotechnology and 

che mical sensors 

Heterogeneous 

System Integration 

System in Package 

M E M S Packaging 

MOEMS 

Packaging 

Challange 

Lab on Chip, integrated fluidic, 

integrated reactors and sensors 

High pin count, QFP, LGA, B G A, 

functionalintegration 

3D interconnection, passive 

integration, thermal management 

3D integration, hermeticity, Wafer 

level packaging 

Integration of optical and 

electrical conductors/components 




Technical Requirements 

C he mical performance 

Biocompatibility 

Flatness, TCE matching of 

Ceramic to PC B, 

New and adapted 

materials, new and adepted 

processe 

TCE matching of Ceramic 

to Si, no XY shrinkage 

no XY shrinkage, excellent 

planarity and accuracy


Outlook: SMEs versus Large companies in Ceramics business 

SMEs 

Open Market 

Low Volumes 

High Flexibility 

Available M aterials 

Available Processe 

State of the Art Technologies 

Higher Costs 

Large Com panies 




Captive Market 

High Volum e 

Low Flexibility 

Proprietary Materials 

Proprietary Processes 

Leading edge Technologies 

Lo wer Costs 

S M Es are facing heavy efforts to follow the technology trend set by the big players. 

W e solve this by active netw orking and R & D cooperations


Outlook: Exploration of new application fields 

In future, new application fields have to be 

explored and cera mic and especially LT C C is 

providing a high innovation potential 

All the exam ples following are processed in VIA 

electronic. New LTCC Materials and processes as 

well as dem onstrator applications were developed in 

the frame of jointresearch progra m mes. 





Perspective: Smart LTCC Components with integrated passives 

L/C Bandpass 

LC phase shifter 

Po wer transform er 

S M T co m patible LTC C Integrated 

Passive components forlow power, 

high po wer, low frequency and high 

frequency ap plications using new 

dielectric materials and new 

m anufacturing processes 




Ferritic ltcc inductor 

Integrated resistor


Perspective : Wafer Level Packaging by anodic bonding to LTCC 

LTCC substrate bonded with Si- wafer 

and cross section of bonded area 

Silicon 

LTCC 




LTCC metallized wafer bonded with the 

Si- and glass-wafer simultaneously by 

anodic bonding at 400°C, 1500 V, 

Schematic and Demonstrator 

Electrodes 

LTCC 

Silicon 

Glass


Perspective : Integrated Passives for ME M S switch modules 

ESL 

cond 2 cond 1a 

cond 1 

layer 1 

layer 2 

layer 3 

layer 4 

Integrated high-k-tape 

ESL 



cond 1 

cond 1 

layer 1 

layer 2 

layer 3 

layer 4 

951C2/ 37µ layer 

layer 1 

layer 2 

layer 3 

layer 4 

structured 

40µm 

structured 

high-K-tape 

highK paste 

Integrated high-k ink 

resistors 

RF-structures 

sidewall 

metallization 

sealing 

RF-MEMS 

switch 

with cap 

thermal vias / spreader 




high k layer 

cavities for RF-MEMS

… Outlook on the Future of Cera mics and Cera mic Microsyste ms: 

Perspective : Integrated Optoelectronics on LTCC 

Pressure assisted sintering Material DuPont 951 

Cavities, postfire laser cut 




Blind holes, postfire laser drilled +-25µ 

Vias 90µm, position +-50µm 

Application: CSP for Si optical bench 

CMOS 

Window 

Blind hole 

CMOS Bumps CMOS UBM 

CSP Bumps

… Outlook on the Future of Cera mics and Cera mic Microsyste ms: 

Perspective : Integrated Optoelectronics on LTCC 

Pressure assisted sintering 

Lapped 

ra

… O utlook on the Future of Cera mics and Ceramic Microsyste ms: 

Perspective : Integrated Fluidics 

Fluidic channel 

0,1 x 0,1 m m 


0,2 x 0,2 m m 


0,4 x 0,6 m m 




Sensorpackage 

withintegrated 

Fluidic


Perspective : Biotechnology and Biosensor 

Bio-Sensor with 

integrated Fluidic 

Fluidic 

interconnection at 

100µm channel 




Fluidic Chip with integrated 

high voltage conductors


Cooperation: Full R&D Chain from materials to products 

Dedicatedto Grow: 

A Network of Industries, R& D 

Institutes and Universities, for 

the Development and 

Realisation of Cera mic Based 

Microelelectronic Devices 

and Microsystems 

•14 SMEs`, 1.500 Employees 

•2 Universities 

•4 Research Institutes 

Fro m ceramic powders to ceramic based Microsystems and devices 

Jena 




Hermsdorf 

Berlin, 230k m 

Nurenberg, 220 km


Conclusion : Cera mics business bears severe risks 

No continuously growing dem and over the main 

marketsections visible 

Pressure towards m ore cost efficient solutions during 

change of product generations 

Trend to m ove from expensive hardware solutions 

towards cheap software solutions 

High R&D effortsneeded to keep pace with the 

Roadmaps of the Semiconductor develop m ents 





Conclusion : Cera mics business bears excellent chances 

Superior reliability properties for strategic markets 

High innovation potential for new I&P solutions 

Capability for further increase ment of miniaturisation 

High integration capability with new functions 

Expertise at Universities and Research Institutes in Europe 

Material and performance improvementsthrough Nanotechnologogy 

approach 

High innovation speed by networking 

Sustainable growth potential with new markets 




Thanksforyourattention 

Cera mic solutions will always 

play an important roll to enable 

new strategic, high end and 

leading edge applications 

Parts of the work presented were carried out in the frame of the joint 

research projects 20Ghz+, Multifer, Mabogos, Match-Druck, Imodas 

and AHRMS, supported by the Ministery of Reasearch and Technology 

in Thuringia, The German Ministery of Education and Research and the 

European Commission

Franz Bechtold - VIA electronic

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