Successful Ceramic Technology Meeting at Greenwich

Devonport House adjacent to Greenwich University was the venue for a very successful technical meeting entitled "The Thick and Thin of Ceramics Based Interconnection" held on 1st December 2005. Some 70 delegates including 9 exhibiting companies provided a full day of technical presentations and networking.

First off the mark was Trevor Coombes of Dupont Microcircuit Materials who provided a roadmap to the future highlighting power handling, accurately trimmed resistors and superior performance in harsh environments as benefits provided by ceramic substrates. Rob Luceroni from CoorsTek discussed the history of high purity Superstrates and stressed their particular suitability in advanced planar RF micro-devices which required tighter control of dielectric constant magnitude and control. Lead-free topics are currently popular and Quentin Reynolds of Heraeus presented the contribution thick film circuits offered in meeting WEEE and RoHs requirements.

Hybrid/MCM design appears to have come of age was the opinion of Tom Dloughy of CAD Design Software and a number of examples were given. The importance of ceramic substrates was again stressed by Jim Forbes of Selex S&As in his users perspective of Ceramic Interconnections in MW Modules where in particular electronically steered radar antennae with hundreds of modules per system had forced cost savings with the use of thick film, automated assembly and automated wire bonding being widely applied. David Lowrie of C-Mac and Steve Muckett of Mozaik ably filled a gap in the published programme to talk about the use of Ceramic \interconnect in the Automotive Sector. Following presentation of a ' roadmap' for automotive applications a number of perceived problems were discussed such as high cost, accessibility of reliable KGD and the advances in the new generation of alternative substrates.

Thin film technology featured in a paper by Dieter Kaegi of Reinhardt MicroTech - High Density Integration Application - highlighting high volume applications in medicine, opto-electronics, telecommunications and automotive sectors. There also appeared to be a revival of the SMD high density, high precision thin film resistor for high ohmic or high voltage applications. What's all the Fuss About Ceramic? was the question put by Geoff Thompson of Welwyn in the concluding paper After tracing the company's 30 years using thick film he went on to quote use of alternative substrates such as steel and aluminium in applications as varied as elevator motor control and ambient lighting, also mentioning some of his company's use of novel substrate techniques for power management.

Delegates were issued with a questionnaire to help in the planning of future events which showed a very positive and satisfying meeting.

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