Advancements in Glass for Packaging Applications

Glass provides many opportunities for advanced packaging. The most obvious advantage is given by the material properties. As an insulator, glass has low electrical loss, particularly at high frequencies. The relatively high stiffness and ability to adjust coefficient of thermal expansion gives advantages to manage warp in glass core substrates and bonded stacks for both through glass vias (TGV) and carrier applications. Glass also gives advantages for developing cost effective solutions. Glass forming processes allow the potential to both form in panel format as well as to at thicknesses as low as 100 um, giving opportunities to optimize or eliminate current manufacturing methods. As the industry adopts glass solutions, significant advancements have been made in downstream processes such as glass handling and via/surface metallization. Of particular interest is the ability to leverage tool sets and processes for panel fabrication to enable cost structures desired by the industry. By utilizing the stiffness and adjustable CTE of glass substrates, as well as continuously reducing via size that can be made in a panel format, opportunities to manufacture glass TGV substrates in a panel format increase. We will provide an update on advancements in these areas as well as handling techniques to achieve desired process flows. We will also provide the latest demonstrations of electrical, thermal and mechanical reliability.