Cu-Direct Via-Hole Drilling of Aramid Fiber Reinforced Build-Up Layer by CO₂ Laser Beam

This report describes the features of Cu-direct laser drilled hole quality on multi-layer Printed Wiring Boards (PWBs). Cu-direct laser drilling drills the outer copper foil and build-up layer at the same time, which makes it difficult to form a blind via hole (BVH) with high quality because the copper foil has high reflection coefficient for a CO₂ laser with wavelength 10.6 μm. Therefore, this study focused on improving drilled hole qualities such as diameter and overhang. First, the influence of laser irradiation conditions on forming BVH and the drilled hole diameter were investigated in detail. Second, a new method employing thermography was proposed in order to evaluate the absorption of copper foil after surface treatment. Third, the effect of mixing fillers into the build-up layer in order to reduce the amount of overhang was shown to be effective both experimentally and theoretically. As a result, it is clear that decreasing the difference in the laser absorption rate of the outer copper foil is an effective means to control the hole diameter and reducing the heat characteristic difference between the outer copper foil and the build-up layer can effectively decrease overhang.