Activities of the Electronics Systems Packaging Group

Objectives

  1. To offer courses related to electronics packaging and production
  2. To offer software (CAD related to PWB design) and hardware services (PWB fabrication) for CEDT staff and students
  3. To have an information base for Standards and Practices
  4. To conduct short-term courses for individuals and industries in different areas of electronics packaging
  5. To utilize new technologies and systems in the manufacture of electronics products
  6. To conduct research in the current areas of high-density PWB process technologies using organic substrates- for example, one of the current areas of research in CEDT is microvias and embedded passives on FR-4 substrate

Facilities
The Group offers service facilities to CEDT staff and students in the manufacture of single and double-sided Printed Circuit Boards. Prototype Surface Mount assemblies are also done in the lab.
Some of the laboratory facilities are listed below:

  • Dust-free room for imaging and inspection of finished boards
  • A yellow room for photo imaging of circuits onto PCB substrates. Equipments used here are a dry film laminator, UV exposure unit, and suitable developers; manual screen printing machine for solder mask application and legend printing purposes.
  • A chemical lab consisting of all the major equipments required for plated-through hole processing:
    • complete PTH line with rinsing and custom made design for power supply etc.
    • conveyorized etching machine
    • conveyorized deburring and brushing machine
    • conveyorized developing machine
    • deionized water supply for all the units
  • Stereo zoom microscopes; USB microscope for inspection
  • SMD Assembly units, lab type for large-pitch SMD components
  • SMD Assembly system for fine-pitch BGA assembly
  • CNC drilling machine; single spindle; with provision for data input from PCB CAD systems
  • The lab offers service for single and double side PCB fabrication. Glass-epoxy is the most common substrate used presently.
  • CAD support:
    The Electronic Systems Packaging Group offers PCB CAD support to CEDT staff and students. PCB CAD is introduced to M.Tech students in the academic course offered every year.

Research Activities at ESP-CEDT

  • Utilizing microvia technology for printed circuit boards on glass-epoxy substrates to replace mechanical drilling procedure. An ISRO-STC project has been recently completed to analyze the reliability of this procedure. The Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India had funded a 1-crore project for microvia research (2003-2005). SBU technology was a focus of this research program.
  • As an extension of the SBU process for PWBs, embedded passives will also be a focus of research activity in the ESP lab of CEDT. Resistors are fabricated by any of three methods: screen printing and curing of printed resistor pastes at lower temperatures; patterning of resistors on RCM foil containing NiCr or NiP resistor alloy; and electroless deposition of NiP and NiWP on organic substrates to achieve low-TCR. Embedded capacitors will be fabricated using BaTiO3 in a suitable dielectric. Using low-loss dielectrics will yield higher reliability and performance.
  • Industry prototypes using embedded R and C
  • Establishing well-defined design-build-test (DBT) hands-on experience courses for students and industry.