The main direction of their activity concerns system and assembly integration, both for the integrated system and the first integration level. Among most recent developments, the creation of a special modular kit to enable the stacking of a series of microelectronic and micromechanical modules, connecting sensor and actuator functions, and creating very complex integrated Microsystems. The kit was developed in association with the VDMA bureau (Verband Deutscher Maschinen-und Anlagenbauer) and with a consortium of VDMA associates. Many container projects were proposed and submitted to experimental test by industrial partners, then tested on a specific sensor and finally in its natural work environment.

Modules were created using DuPont’s Green Tape system materials. Also called TB-BGA (Top-Bottom Ball Grid Array), the package in question was manufactured by Via Electronic, a company with headquarters in Hermsdorf, Germany, equipped with a manufacturing structure for the production of LTCC (Low Temperature Cofired Ceramic) circuits.

The modules in detail
In this particular case, the LTCC package had to be inserted in a pressure sensor for mechanical and automotive applications. This device required resistance and reliability features that would permit its operation in particularly severe environments. The package also had to be miniaturised to live up to cost and overall dimensions requirements, able to work in a reliable way as an electric circuit and show the necessary flexibility to be used as sensor for various functions.

In the LTCC process, adopted for the manufacturing of this type of package, 16 layers of DuPont Green Tape, type 951, were used, with seven internal metallization layers, connected among them by about 1,100 metallized holes, and drilled in the various dielectric layers. The architecture of this modular kit can incorporate sensors of various nature (such as: pressure, chemical, temperature, electronic etc.) with the possibility of preparing tin the same container a bus-type structure for the amplification of the signal. The structure enables the stacking of various single containers, such as LGA and BGA, one on the other, and the complete structure can be included in a single well-protected container. The study group at IZM, in charge of the evaluation and reliability testing of such modular microsystems, maintains that there are many potential applications on the market for LTCC modular kits for different types of sensors in sectors such as automotive, industry and telecommunications.
Currently a fluid sensor device, in an electromechanical microsystem, is being produced.