CAD Translation
UltraSource routinely works with customer CAD data in DXF, AutoCAD DWG, Gerber, or GDS formats. We translate and repair customer CAD designs created in the different CAD systems in order to make it usable in manufacturing.
Photomask Layout & Design
Customer supplied CAD designs are drafted into a step & repeat pattern in order to maximize substrate yield and provide the lowest cost and highest quality thin film devices. Etch factors, alignment features, and photomask polarity are added according to the specific thin film process and/or substrate requirements.
Substrates
The substrate is the foundation on which the thin film components are built. The substrate properties have significant influence on the performance of the device. Alumina is still the most common substrate material due to its surface quality, cost, and high frequency performance. For power applications, Aluminum Nitride and BeO substrates are still the choices. [...]
Vias
UltraVia™ To meet a variety of customer identified challenges, UltraSource has developed a new filled via product, the UltraVia™. This patented technology uses pure metal filled via materials that are bonded directly into the ceramic vias to provide a robust, highly conductive, highly reliable connection in thin film substrates. The UltraVia improves on existing filled via technologies [...]
Sputtering of Resistor Films
Tantalum nitride films are reactively sputtered in order to provide highly stable resistor films with low temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) performance. Nichrome films are also available.
Plating
Gold or ENEPIG plating can be added to sputtered films for applications when plating is required. Gold plating is used to build up thin film coatings and ENEPIG is used to provide solderability and wire bondability from the same metallization.
Photoresist Spray Coat
Photoresist, the photo-sensitive coating that enables patterning, is applied to thin film substrates via a robotic spray system.
Front to Back Alignment
Custom mask aligners and tooling are used to ensure that front side and back side patterns are aligned to each other to within ± 24 microns (± .001”) of each other.
Metalized Windows
UltraSource, Inc. provides thin film metalization and patterning services that allow our customers to hermetically seal windows and lenses into optical, laser, and infrared assemblies. Our unique thin film metalization and patterning processes apply solderable metal coatings that provide hermetic integrity against a variety of the tough applications like space, infrared signal transmission, and medical [...]
Photolithography
Photolithography is the process of using light to transfer images from a photomask to a coated thin film substrate. The key to the process is the use of a light-sensitive chemical called photoresist and a precision phototool, called a photomask. The photomask is custom tooling made from customer CAD files.