Overview of via formation technologies for ceramic packaging manufacturing

Via hole formation plays an important role in multi-layer electronic packaging fabrication because it provides vertical paths for the packaging interconnection networks. As the packaging wiring density and complexity increases, additional and more stringent demands are put on the via formation technology (e.g. tighter dimensional control, higher via positional accuracy, etc.). Over the years, several via formation technologies have been developed and implemented for manufacturing high performance electronic packages. They range from the traditional mechanical punch to the state-of-the-art directed energy technologies such as laser and electron beam. The primary driving forces for the various via formation technologies are application extension, performance enhancement, cost reduction, and flexibility. In this paper, an-overview of these via forming technologies along with the comparison of their capability and flexibility is given. The focus is on mechanical punching, laser drilling, and electron beam machining