DIRECT BONDING OF METALS TO CERAMICS FOR THE MANUFACTURED MICROWAVE PACKAGES

Soldered, planar ceramic-metal micropackages are used for encapsulating electronic components such as microwave diodes. The micropackage consists of a ceramic substrate, a metallic layout, and a metallic connection. In this study, the corundum substrate was coated with a metallic layout thin film consisting of layers of titanium, nickel and gold. This sputtered film was then coated with a photoresist to enable etching and patterning. Ceramic-metal soldering by means of metal-to-metal (gold-to-gold) diffusion was used to fabricate the micropackage, employing gold/nickel-plated copper terminals. This production method is more cost effective than traditional manufacturing processes. 4 refs.