I-Corps: Microscale Selective Laser Sintering Process

I-Corps：微型选择性激光烧结工艺

• 批准号: 2140503
• 负责人: Michael Cullinan
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2023-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2140503&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Microscale; Selective; Laser; Sintering

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to enable fabrication of high-density, high-aspect-ratio, freeform 3-dimentional (3D_ microscale interconnect structures at rates up to three times faster than existing technologies. This new commercial capability may have far-reaching implications due to the significant demand for new advanced packaging technologies for integrated circuits. The microscale, selective, laser sintering system has the potential to lower the cost of consumer and business facing products such as cloud web services and mobile computing while enabling new high-performance embedded applications such as self-driving vehicle technology, radiation-hard and high-acceleration sensing, and internet-connected medical devices. This technology may also potentially enable new packaging architectures not possible using current state-of-the-art fabrication techniques, increasing the design freedom of integrated circuit architects and enabling new technologies and applications.This I-Corps project further develops a microscale selective sintering process. In this process a layer of nanoparticle ink is coated using a slot-die coater and shuttled to the optical subsystem using a long-range custom air-bearing stage. There, a laser is focused through a digital micromirror device to sinter the nanoparticles into the desired pattern. After the first layer is sintered, the air-bearing stage translates the substrate back under the coater for the deposition of the next layer. The process of deposition, transfer and sintering is then repeated, building the 3D part. The research focuses on improving the current capabilities of the subsystems within the proof-of-concept prototype tool and the developing computational models along with materials/thermal measurements to understand the nanoscale physics within the microscale selective sintering process. Previous work has demonstrated fabrication of 3D metal structures with feature sizes of less than 5 microns and aspect ratios of greater than 20 to 1.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该 I-Corps 项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是能够以比现有技术快三倍的速度制造高密度、高纵横比、自由形式 3 维（3D_ 微米级互连结构）。由于对集成电路的新型先进封装技术的巨大需求，这种能力可能会产生深远的影响，微型选择性激光烧结系统有可能降低面向消费者和企业的产品（例如云网络服务和移动计算）的成本。同时实现新的高性能嵌入式应用，例如自动驾驶车辆技术、抗辐射和高加速传感以及互联网连接的医疗设备。该技术还可能实现使用当前技术水平无法实现的新封装架构。 -先进的制造技术，增加了集成电路架构师的设计自由度，并实现了新技术和应用。这个I-Corps项目进一步开发了微尺度选择性烧结工艺。 在此过程中，使用狭缝模头涂布机涂布一层纳米颗粒墨水，并使用远程定制空气轴承台将其输送到光学子系统。在那里，激光通过数字微镜装置聚焦，将纳米颗粒烧结成所需的图案。第一层烧结后，空气轴承台将基材平移回涂布机下方，以沉积下一层。然后重复沉积、转移和烧结过程，构建 3D 部件。该研究的重点是提高概念验证原型工具中子系统的当前功能，并开发计算模型以及材料/热测量，以了解微米级选择性烧结过程中的纳米级物理学。 之前的工作已经证明了特征尺寸小于 5 微米、纵横比大于 20 比 1 的 3D 金属结构的制造。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。