PCB development, including board manufacturing and PCB assembly, has been moving toward smaller, more complex architectures. This trend is driven by the need for greater functionality and a wider range of deployment options, especially in more compact locations. Much of the PCB industry's answer is focused on the miniaturization of traditional substrates and laminate materials and the increased number of layers. PCB stacking. But challenges such as heat dissipation, removal of excess from circuit boards, and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), which describe the tendency of a material to change as the temperature applied to it changes, have led to the search for other materials that can respond more favorably to these problems. One result that emerged was ceramics.

Ceramic materials (e.g., alumina, aluminum nitride, and beryllium oxide) outperform traditional sheets such as polyimide, polystyrene, epoxy fiberglass, and phenolic resins in terms of thermal conductivity, erosion resistance, and CTE. Component compatibility and high density trace routing, such as for high density multimedia interface (HDMI) connections. These properties make ceramic materials well suited for use in multilayer panels, which can be classified according to their manufacturing methods, as shown below.

Manufacturing method of ceramic multilayer PCB

l Thick film ceramic PCB

These boards consist of gold and a dielectric paste printed on a ceramic substrate and baked at temperatures just below 1000°C. Thick film ceramic PCBS can use gold or copper, and copper is used the most due to its lower cost. To prevent oxidation, the plate is baked in nitrogen.

l Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) PCB

LTCC uses co-firing, which simultaneously burns materials such as non-glass, glass composites, or glass crystals. Traces are usually gold to achieve high thermal conductivity, and the board is baked at 900°C.

l High temperature co-fired ceramic (HTCC) PCB

HTCC uses alumina and adhesives as well as plasticizers, solvents and lubricants. The circuit trace can be metal, such as tungsten and molybdenum, and the baking temperature can be as high as 1600°C to 1700°C. This method is most suitable for small circuit boards and carrier circuits.

The use of ceramic multilayer PCB

Ceramic multilayer PCBS enjoy their greatest realization in high-speed, high-power circuit applications. These boards reduce parasitic capacitance by up to 90 percent compared to traditional board materials and offer the best hope for future use in aerospace, medical devices, industrial and automotive industries.

Ceramic multilayer PCB: advantages and disadvantages

The main advantage of ceramic multilayer PCB is its thermal performance. The most important of these is thermal conductivity, which largely outperforms conventional materials. In the table below, the most commonly used sheet FR4 is compared with ceramic multilayer boards in many important categories.