Laser Drilling Microvias

Microvia Drilling Informative Article Series

Microvia Drilling: Basics

Microvia Drilling: Accuracy

Coming Soon

Microvia Drilling: Reliability

Coming Soon

Microvia Drilling: Efficiency

Coming Soon

Microvias are becoming more and more common in the board designs of today. There are many benefits to laser drilling microvias, including real estate savings, impedance control, circuit reliability, and RF line termination. For this reason, MLT has developed laser microvia processes to work with a very wide range of materials and via profiles to fit your designs that meet IPC standards.

MLT offers laser drilling microvias in both copper clad and unclad laminates. While we do recommend that outer layer foils be kept to half ounce or thinner for process efficiency, we are capable of handling much thicker copper cladding if your design calls for them.

Please see our PCB Materials section for more information on the range of materials that MLT is capable of processing or give us a call if you want to discuss a particular application.

Microvia hole diameters are limited by aspect ratio (hole depth to hole diameter). As the hole depth exceeds the hole diameter, laser drilling quality can be affected. Please contact MLT for microvia size requirements that exceed a 1:1 aspect ratio.

CAD or Data Requirements

CAD system integration and custom file converters enable flexible, laser manufacturing from customer-provided data. Although most file types are accepted, the preferred file types are Gerber, Excellon, DXF, or other 2D formats. In most cases, non-scaled data is required as MLT will make the appropriate scaling or offsets to meet part dimensions.

If concerned about compatibility of your data format or CAD/CAM tool, please contact MLT Sales for more information. For more CAM/CAD guidelines and detailed requirements, click CAD Requirements.

Drilling and Machining Tolerances

Positional:	+/- .001” over 12 inches
Dimensional:	+/- .0005”
Hole Sizes:	.001” and up in diameter
Panel Sizes:	24” x 30” without custom fixturing

Dielectrics

FR4 all types	Hitachi	Soldermask
Isola	Gore	Rogers (Duroid & Teflon)
Getek	Taconic	Mitsubishi BT's
Nelco	Ceramics	ARLON CLTE

Reinforcements

Woven Glass (106,1080,2216,2213,2313)	Aramid (Thermount)	Ceramic
Non-woven glass	PTFE

Chemistries

BCB (benzocyclobutene)	Epoxy	Cyanate ester
PEEK (polyetheretherketone)	Epoxy blends	Polyimide
FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene)	Polyester	Acrylics
LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer)	PPE (polyphenylene ether)	BT resins

Via Construction

Blind – single and double deep	Buried	Stepped
Staggered	Stacked	Through-hole