Laboratory Experiments in the Fabrication of Thick-Film and Thin-Film Integrated Circuits

The thin-film and thick-film technology of fabricating hybrid integrated circuits has become of increasing importance as requirements for precision components, such as in active filters and digital to analog converters, are imposed on present circuit designs. This paper describes a series of experiments used to demonstrate this technology at the undergraduate level. The main objective of these experiments was to allow the undergraduate student to acquire a working knowledge of how the two hybrid integrated circuits were fabricated. A secondary objective was to allow him to evaluate the two techniques in terms of the equipment used and the electrical results obtained. In addition, the equipment and techniques used for monolithic I-C fabrication were introduced by these experiments. The methods used to fabricate photomasks, copper-beryllium evaporation masks, thick-and thin-film conductors, and resistors are described.