Laser Drilling Microvias has made the worry of damaging rigid PCB a thing of the past.

Mechanical drilling has been the standard method for placing via holes in PCBs and is still a mainstay for most PCB applications. Mechanical punching is one other method for placing via holes thin, flexible PCB substrates. Via holes with diameters on the order of 0.002″ can be placed on PCBs, but the process cannot be used on rigid PCBs lest they are damaged during the act.

Why Laser Drilling Microvias?

Laser drilling has become more popular recently as it can overcome many of limitations placed on mechanical punching. Laser drilling can be used to form microvias in PCBs and is not limited by the same material constraints as mechanical punching. Lasers with emission wavelengths that span from deep infrared to ultraviolet can be used for laser drilling.

As newer devices require higher component densities, microvias are becoming more in PCB designs. Multilayer boards with smaller traces at high-density also require microvias to route your signals. Laser drilling of microvias is the preferred fabrication method due to their small size, that standard milling methods cannot accurately form with the high aspect ratios and density required in mobile, IoT, and wearable technologies.

The greatest benefit of microvias is their small footprint. Microvias are also important for routing signals through small traces in multilayer boards. Laser drilling allows the formation of microvias in a wide range of materials with profiles that meet IPC standards.

The Right Laser For Your Microvias

The primary limiting factor that determines the best laser for drilling is:

• reflection from the PCB
• the microvia diameter
• and its profile.

If the substrate material is more reflective at the laser wavelength, less power is used to remove material from the board and machining time increases. This becomes important in high-volume manufacturing and can have a real impact on costs. If a smaller via is required, a different laser is recommended.

The chemical composition of your PCB substrate will need to be balanced with the microvia size you place in your layout. The microvia diameter you wish to place in your layout will be limited by the laser wavelength. The profile of your microvia will also be determined by the focusing system available to your manufacturer. These two parameters are interrelated, and one parameter cannot be modified without changing the other.

Laser cutting and drilling systems operate by focusing the laser down to a small point called the beam waist. In a perfect situation, where the focusing optics do not have any aberrations, the beam waist is proportional to the wavelength of the drilling laser.

Focusing Optics

The focusing optics also determine the depth of focus. Focusing optics with a longer focal length result in a larger beam waist, but it also allows the microvia to have a more narrow profile. In contrast, optics with smaller focal length will result in a microvia with a wider area at the landing pad, but a smaller area at the capture pad.

If a microvia that penetrates multiple layers is required in your PCB design, you won’t be able to fabricate it by laser drilling through the stacked layers. Instead, blind microvias can be placed in each layer and stacked on top of each other. The buried or through-hole via is then formed naturally when the board layers are stacked.

More in our Microvia Drilling Informative Article Series

Micron Laser specializes in Microvia Laser Drilling Services

Contact Micron Laser Technology to see how our Microvia laser drilling processes can advance your PCB designs utilizing microvias and avoid the pitfalls of underprocessed, overprocessed, and poor plating adhesion that lead to downstream reliability issues.

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