Projects

The StarJet technology allows for the printing of metal micro-droplets direct from the metal melt. This technology, that was developed at University of Freiburg and has already been patented, will be used in this project to develop a generic new bonding technology to contact electronic components on printed circuit boards (PCBs). Conventional wire-bonded components partially exhibit too low mechanical stabilities, because wires are prone to loosen or even to break. Therefore, specific applications demand for an alternative process, where direct printing of metal contacts from melt is a promising approach. During this project, the usability of the StarJet technology for printing circuits between semiconductor components and PCBs will be investigated. As an example, the printing process will be realized and characterized contacting so-called Medipix detectors. The technology of these detectors is based on the direct conversion of ionizing radiation to digital electronic imaging information therefore offering brilliant resolutions. The sensitive detectors are currently contacted to PCBs via wire bonding. Defects of a detector chip are severe, since up to 100 single chips are connected to one camera and failure of a chip brings the defect of the whole camera. Innovative bonding shall extend life cycle of the detectors, which are amongst other applications installed at ISS. It is expected, that direct metallization of the chips allows for mechanically more stable contacts, which would eliminate the main cause of failure. Above all, the StarJet technology exhibits a minimum rate of solder consumption and can easily be automated, which not only enables the manufacturing of more reliable, but probably also cost-efficient detectors.