Application

Tickfilm Application

Thick-film hybrid technology is a mounting and connection technology used in the manufacture of electronic circuits. The substrate materials used are usually aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), LTCC (low temperature co-fired ceramic), and aluminum nitride ceramics (AlN).
The conductor tracks and electrical resistors are applied to the substrate using a screen printing process. This is followed by a firing process in which the layers are sintered with the ceramic. This step ensures that the layers are permanently bonded and their electrical properties are optimized. Due to manufacturing tolerances, the resistors are finely tuned either by active (e.g., target values for current, frequency, or power) or passive trimming (e.g., target value resistance) using a laser.
Laser trimming requires a great deal of experience and expertise, as the choice of the ideal laser source and optics, suitable cutting geometry, and parameterization are crucial for a precise, reproducible, and long-term stable result.

Thinfilm Application

In contrast to thick-film technology, the resistive material in the thin-film process is applied to the substrate by sputtering (vacuum coating). This creates a uniform metal layer, usually an alloy of nickel and chromium (NiCr), with a thickness of approximately 0.1 µm. Thanks to their homogeneity and low layer thickness, thin-film resistors can be tuned very precisely, with an accuracy of less than 0.05%.
Precise and fast hardware is essential for this, in order to ensure a process that guarantees both accuracy and throughput. To avoid the complex photolithography process involved in structure generation, the circuit design can also be structured using a laser. The standard LS-CAD program makes it easy to import layouts in DXF format into the system.
The integrated image processing automatically scales or rotates the structure to ensure precise alignment.