Electro Scientific Industries Inc., Portland, Ore., introduces the CornerStone ICP Series 1 UV laser drilling system designed initially for integrated circuit packaging applications. Compared with typical laser drill tools, this new platform offers lower overall cost of ownership and improved accuracy with a reduced footprint, enabling production of vias for current and next-generation products.
Laser systems are widely employed for drilling vias in organic substrate material used for ICPs, and are typically used for vias less than 100 μm in diameter. The CornerStone ICP Series 1 system meets today’s production demands and enables packaging manufacturers to meet design requirements for even smaller vias and higher accuracy required in the future.
“With this introduction, we are addressing existing design requirements while providing significantly lower cost of ownership in an industry-leading small footprint,” said Dr. Michael Darwin, Vice President and General Manager, ESI. “We are excited about the CoO advantage we can offer our customers and look forward to providing a complete and cost-effective solution to the via drilling market.”
In addition to the UV laser source, the CornerStone ICP Series 1 system incorporates ESI’s patented Third Dynamics technology (announced in March of 2013) in a multi-beam format. This technology provides per-beam drill rates that significantly outperform the typical high volume manufacturing (HVM) laser drill systems in operation today. The resulting productivity leads the industry and in turn significantly lowers customers’ cost of ownership.
As next-generation substrates push the requirements for line/space and signal routing, the target pad and via diameters will decrease. This will also require a corresponding improvement in via placement accuracy. In its standard configuration, the CornerStone ICP Series 1 offers industry-leading via placement accuracy, and can be extended for even smaller and denser via requirements in the future.
