Switzerland-based micro 3D printing firm Exaddon has developed the world’s first 3D microprinted probes able to fine-pitch probing at sub-20 µm pitch. Wonderful-pitch probe testing is a particularly complicated and exact course of used to check semiconductor dies.
Optimized for semiconductor wafer testing, Exaddon’s excessive conductivity probes are 3D printed immediately onto customizable and exchangeable house transformers. This reduces complexity, value, and the variety of required element layers.
Exaddon claims that its sub-20 µm capabilities supply vital advantages for the semiconductor trade. Testing at finer pitches permits a higher lively die space, which will increase yield and reduces chip value, chopping shopper product prices within the course of. Furthermore, the corporate’s template-free micro 3D printing course of is very customizable and able to fabricating freestanding buildings with excessive side ratios.
“The distinctive capabilities of Exaddon’s μ3D printing expertise, made attainable by native electrodeposition of pure metallic, affords an unprecedented route towards efficiently accessing and testing at sub-20 μm pitch,” Exaddion said in a press launch.
“Any utility which requires fantastic pitch probing beneath the present pitch restrict stands to profit from this distinctive method.”
Exaddon 3D microprinting enhances fine-pitch probing
Based in 2019 as a spin-off from Swiss micro 3D printing firm Cytosurge, Exaddon specializes within the additive manufacturing of micro metallic elements. Since its launch, the corporate has established itself as a key supplier of 3D printing expertise for tutorial analysis initiatives world wide.
The corporate’s micro 3D printing capabilities, developed over the previous two years, search to satisfy demand within the $500 billion semiconductor market. Semiconductor producers depend on probe testing of excessive efficiency dies to make sure that solely Recognized Good Dies (KDG) make it into their last semiconductor parts.
In response to Exaddon, probe testing at present struggles to attain pitches beneath 40 µm. That is stated to restrict chip design and prohibit the flexibility of firms to satisfy shopper demand. As an example, regardless of the 80% CAGR and multi-billion greenback valuation of the microLED market, LED testing is at present restricted to a resource- and time-consuming two-probe method.
These challenges are overcome by Exaddon’s micro 3D printing expertise, which may fabricate prime quality metallic parts measuring lower than 20 µm. The Zurich-based firm has efficiently demonstrated its fine-pitch probe capabilities on µLEDs.
The corporate’s microLED take a look at array is 3D printed immediately on pre-patterned traces with a sub 20 µm pitch. This demonstrator array possesses 128 probes, with a minimal pitch of 18.5 µm within the X-axis, 9.5 µm within the Y-axis, and ±2 μm for the Z-planetary. Exaddon’s probe array, which is round 10% the scale of different firms’ probe arrays, reportedly provides microLED testers a 64x enhance in effectivity.
What’s extra, Exadden’s template-free 3D printing course of is very customizable, and excels at fabricating excessive side ratio, freestanding buildings comparable to coils and lattices. 3D printing immediately onto the house transformer simplifies probe card building, eliminating course of steps and parts that may in any other case be required. This reduces prices and complexities related to probe manufacturing.
Sooner or later, the corporate plans to extend probe rely in its μLED arrays and full WAT (water acceptance take a look at) and CIS (CMOS Picture Sensor) probe testing.
Developments in micro 3D printing
Micro 3D printing has been acknowledged by quite a lot of firms as providing potential inside the improvement and manufacturing {of electrical} units.
Final 12 months, Austria-based high-precision optical system developer In-Imaginative and prescient introduced a collaboration with Professor Tapajyoti Das Gupta of the Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore to develop a brand new sub-micron 3D printer. Working with Mumbai-based 3D printer producer J Group Robotics, the companions purpose to construct a 3D printer able to fabricating nano-scale photonic units which can be versatile and stretchable.
Sometimes, nano-scale, high-performance optical units are produced in a multi-step, layered 2D lithography course of. That is expensive and affords restricted scalability, requiring using a number of machines in a cleanroom facility.
The workforce hopes that its new micro 3D printer will speed up and decrease the price of manufacturing, disrupting the semiconductor trade within the course of. The primary sub-micron optical parts are anticipated to be 3D printed in spring 2024.
Elsewhere, Microfabrication start-up Horizon Microtechnologies affords its personal proprietary microscale 3D printing expertise. The corporate’s template-based micro-additive manufacturing (micro-AM) course of permits customers to provide conductive elements with micrometer-level precision.
This micro 3D printing expertise has been designed to supply higher manufacturing versatility within the manufacturing of electrodes, electrical contact pins, microfluidic units, MEMS, and optical packaging.
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Featured picture exhibits a pc render of Exaddon’s template-free 3D print course of. Picture through Exaddon.
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